Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was asked by US television’s CBS News whether Israel’s killing of thousands of Palestinians would fuel hatred in a new generation, Reuters reports.

Netanyahu said Israel’s attempts to minimise civilian casualties were “not successful”, and he accused Hamas of preventing civilians from moving to safer locations.

“Any civilian death is a tragedy. And we shouldn’t have any because we’re doing everything we can to get the civilians out of harm’s way, while Hamas is doing everything to keep them in harm’s way,” Netanyahu said.