The former head of Israel’s National Security Council, Yaakov Amidror, has said Israel’s battle to destroy Hamas may drag on indefinitely, Al Jazeera reports.

Speaking to Israel’s Maariv newspaper, Amidror said Israel’s military would need to remove the Palestinian organisation’s operational capacity, but acknowledged the process would “take a long time, and may never end”.

Israel could only turn to the question of Hamas’s potential replacement in Gaza “when we reach a situation where the movement does not pose a threat”, he added.