Israeli troops are seen near the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, on Jan.18, 2024. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

JERUSALEM/GAZA - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that his country will maintain security control over the Gaza Strip after the ongoing conflict with Hamas ends.

Israel will have "complete security control and control of whatever enters Gaza," Netanyahu told a press conference in Tel Aviv.

He said that over the past two days, Israeli forces killed "dozens" of militants in the Palestinian enclave and destroyed rocket launchers.

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"The war continues on all fronts... until we achieve total victory," he said, adding that the recently revised 582-billion-shekel (about $155 billion) wartime budget, which included an extra 55 billion shekels for defense, "enables the military to fulfill the goals of the war and achieve victory."

Israeli troops are seen near the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, on Jan.18, 2024. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

The Gaza-based Health Ministry on Thursday said the Israeli army killed 172 Palestinians and wounded 326 others during the past 24 hours

He said the war is likely to continue for "many months."

Meanwhile, the Gaza-based Health Ministry on Thursday said the Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 24,620.

The ministry said in a press statement that the Israeli army killed 172 Palestinians and wounded 326 others during the past 24 hours.

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It added that the ongoing conflict has wounded 61,830 Palestinians since its outbreak on Oct 7, 2023, noting that a large number of victims were still under the rubble, and ambulance and civil defense crews could not reach them.

An Israeli bombardment in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah on Wednesday night caused the deaths of at least 19 Palestinians, most of whom were children and women, the Palestine TV reported.

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In the West Bank, the death toll of Palestinians killed by the Israeli army in Tulkarm rose to six during a massive military operation that lasted for more than 30 hours, it added.

At least 367 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire in the West Bank since a new round of Israeli-Palestinian conflict broke out on Oct 7, 2023, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.