The American Financial Times newspaper reported yesterday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still far from achieving his goals, despite the agreement to release some prisoners.

It said that Netanyahu pledged to achieve two goals when he launched the ground invasion of Gaza “to destroy Hamas” and “liberate the 240 prisoners.”

It pointed out that "even as Israel began to move slowly towards one of these goals this week, by reaching an agreement with Hamas to release 50 prisoners, in exchange for a four-day truce and 150 Palestinian prisoners detained in Israel, Netanyahu insisted that the fight has a Much longer time ahead of it."  “Let me be clear: We are at war, and we will continue the war,” he said before a meeting to approve the prisoner deal.

The newspaper pointed out that "Netanyahu's position aims in part to calm the hardliners who strongly oppose any concessions to the Hamas movement," adding that "he also stressed that even after six weeks of fighting in which it occupied northern Gaza and caused unprecedented destruction there, Israel is still far from achieving its military objectives.