JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel remained committed to its proposed Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, and his military chief said the remaining Hamas forces in the southern Gaza city of Rafah were nearly dismantled.

"We are committed to the Israeli proposal that President Biden welcomed. Our position has not changed. The second thing, which does not contradict the first, we will not end the war until we eliminate Hamas," Netanyahu said in a speech to parliament.

Netanyahu said that Israel will not end the conflict "until we bring back all the hostages, all 120 of them -- both the living and the fallen" and until Hamas is "eliminated" and the residents in southern and northern can safely return to their homes.

Israeli Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi said that the Israel Defense Forces' 162nd Division now controls the "Philadelphi Corridor", the military's code name for the 14 km-long strip of land along Gaza's only border with Egypt

Israel's military issued a statement from a situational assessment by its chief of staff in the area of Rafah, where Israeli forces have been fighting Hamas' remaining battalions.

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"We are clearly approaching the point where we can say we have dismantled the Rafah Brigade, that it is defeated not in the sense that there are no more terrorists, but in the sense that it can no longer function as a fighting unit," said Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi.

He said that the Israel Defense Forces' 162nd Division now controls the "Philadelphi Corridor", the military's code name for the 14 km-long strip of land along Gaza's only border with Egypt. "It is very significant in cutting off Hamas' supply for future smuggling," Halevi said.

Hamas's deputy chief in Gaza, Khalil Al-Hayya, said: "We are a people on its land and a resistance (group) defending its land. If the occupation (Israel) announces it is achieving its goals, let it do so and let it say what it wants and the field can validate and falsify."

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He added: "If Israel wants to convince itself that it is done, it should exit the strip," in response to a question about the Israeli army's remarks on dismantling Hamas during an interview with the Qatar-based Al Jazeera TV on Monday.

Israel has been carrying out a massive offensive in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a Hamas rampage on Oct 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 were taken hostage.

The Israeli assault caused a severe humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave and killed more than 37,600 people, according to the health authorities in Gaza.