Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel is readying a ground war in Gaza, pressing ahead with plans that have troubled allies and threaten to worsen an already cascading humanitarian crisis, AFP reports.

Facing ever-louder international calls to temper Israel’s ferocious 19-day bombing campaign in the besieged enclave, Netanyahu delivered a nationally televised address.

He told fellow Israelis still grieving and angry after Hamas’s bloody attacks: “We are in the midst of a campaign for our existence”, while insisting Israel will decide how the war is prosecuted.

Biden has said he had privately suggested Israel should get hostages out if possible before any ground invasion. “It’s their decision, but I did not demand it”, Biden said, as he called on Congress to allocate more money for Israeli defence.

But boasting of “raining down hellfire on Hamas” and killing “thousands of terrorists”, Netanyahu said his war cabinet and the military would determine the timing of a “ground offensive” to “eliminate Hamas” and “bring our captives home.” “I will not detail when, how or how many,” he said.