Likud MK Ze'ev Elkin, chair of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, called for the IDF to retake Gaza. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

“We must not agree to a cease-fire,” charged Knesset Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee Ze’ev Elkin on Monday, telling the Israeli NRG daily that “Hamas is still firing at us because they are not deterred and haven’t yet reached a breaking point – they must emerge from this operation with no gains.”

The staunch member of the ruling Likud party said that “the last time we listened to the US, they convinced us to allow Hamas to take part in elections in Gaza despite our opposition, and, in the end, Hamas won and turned the strip into a terror base,” in 2007.

“We must keep pounding Hamas until they beg for a cease-fire,” Elkin said.

In a related comment, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon that “Gaza must be demilitarized, as established in the interim agreements with the Palestinians.”

Israel, the PM said, “will continue to deal with the terror tunnels. The international community must seek the demilitarization of Gaza.”

“Israel accepted three UN proposals for humanitarian ceasefires, and Hamas violated them all,” Netanyahu said in a statement sent to reporters.

With over 86 percent of Israelis in a poll taken on Sunday backing continued fighting in the coastal enclave in order to stop rocket fire and destroy terror tunnels into Israel, both Netanyahu and Elkin are in the national consensus.

Deputy Transportation Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) on Monday also derided a call by President Barack Obama for an “immediate, unconditional cease-fire” between the sides.

“Israel must reject Obama’s cease-fire bid,” Hotovely said. “The American offer only serves Hamas’ interests.”

“For the first time, there is a solid majority of the Israeli public backing continuing the operation and calling for the government of Israel to change the rules of the gane, and defeat Hamas,” Hotovely said.