JERUSALEM Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that Israel would not agree to a cessation of hostilities with Hamas in the Gaza Strip and would press ahead with its plans to wipe out the group.

Netanyahu said all wars have unintended civilian casualties and Israel's assault on Gaza, which Hamas controls, was a battle between "civilisation and barbarism," calling on allies to back Israel.

At a news conference in Tel Aviv Netanyahu's Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and his Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer also addressed journalists.

Dermer said Israel's coordination with the United States in its fight with Hamas was "unprecedented in history" and that its relationship with Russia was complicated.

Gallant said that in the occupied West Bank, only the Israeli army and police were authorised to use force.

(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch, John Davison; Editing by Chris Reese)