Israeli MP Avigdor Lieberman has accused Netanyahu of deliberately prolonging the 19-month war in Gaza to cling to power, slamming his failure to bring down Hamas.

“Someone who doesn’t know how to eliminate Hamas after a year and seven months of war won’t do it in 17 years either,” said Lieberman, a former defence minister who heads the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, in comments carried by the Israel Hayom newspaper.

“Netanyahu has no intention of eliminating Hamas; he wants to drag the war out until the elections.”