Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to retake control of the Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt, expanding Israel’s mission to neutralise Hamas in a conflict it says it expects to last for months, Reuters reports.

“The war is at its height,” Netanyahu told reporters.

He said the Philadelphi Corridor buffer zone that runs along Gaza’s border with Egypt must be in Israeli hands.

“It must be shut,” Netanyahu said. “It is clear that any other arrangement would not ensure the demilitarisation that we seek.”

He did not elaborate, but such a move by Israel would be a de facto reversal of its 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, placing the enclave under exclusive Israeli control after years of being run by Hamas.