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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected US calls for the development of a Palestinian state, as he vowed the offensive in Gaza would press ahead for many months.

In a nationally televised news conference on Thursday, Mr Netanyahu struck a defiant tone, repeatedly saying that Israel would not halt its offensive until it achieves its goals of destroying the Hamas militant group and bringing home all remaining hostages in Gaza.

“We will not settle for anything short of an absolute victory,” Mr Netanyahu said.

It comes as Israel’s closest ally, the US, has urged the country to scale back the intensity of its devastating military offensive that has killed nearly 25,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

The US has said the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority, which governs certain zones in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, should be “revitalised” and returned to Gaza, having been ousted from the territory in 2007.

The US has also called for steps towards the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Speaking on Wednesday, Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, said the two-state solution was the best way to protect Israel, unify moderate Arab countries and isolate Israel’s arch-enemy, Iran.

Without a “pathway to a Palestinian state” Israel would not “get genuine security”, he said at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

At the same conference, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Faisal bin Farhan al Saud, said his country was ready to establish full relations with Israel as part of a political agreement, but this could only happen “through peace for the Palestinians, through a Palestinian state”.

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Mr Netanyahu – head of the far-right government in Israel – has repeatedly opposed a two-state solution, claiming it would be a launching pad for attacks on his country.

Instead, he said on Thursday that Israel “must have security control over the entire territory west of the Jordan River”.

“This truth I tell to our American friends, and I put the brakes on the attempt to coerce us to a reality that would endanger the state of Israel,” he added.

His comments were immediately rebuked by White House spokesperson John Kirby, who vowed President Joe Biden would “not stop working” towards a two-state solution.

“We obviously see it differently,” he said.

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US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said despite disagreements, the country’s support for Israel “remains ironclad”.

“This is not a question of the United States pressuring them to do anything. This is about the United States laying out for them the opportunity that they have,” he said.

Before Hamas’s attack on 7 October, Israeli citizens were bitterly divided over Mr Netanyahu’s plan for a judicial overhaul, but the country has since rallied behind the war.

Roughly 130 hostages are believed to remain in Hamas captivity, Israel claims.

A plane has returned to its departure airport in Japan after a female member of the cabin crew was bitten by a drunk passenger, according to the airline.

The All Nippon Airways (ANA) Flight 118 took off from Tokyo on Tuesday night and was heading to Seattle where it was due to land 10 hours later, FlightAware tracking data showed.

But it went back to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport three hours into its journey.

An ANA spokesperson told Sky’s US partner network NBC News: “While flying over the Pacific Ocean, a passenger who was heavily intoxicated bit the arm of a female cabin attendant prompting the plane to return to Tokyo Haneda Airport.”

The female flight attendant suffered minor injuries and the suspect, who has not been named, was handed over to police, ANA said.

Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun, citing unnamed police officials, reported the suspect was a 55-year-old American citizen who was arrested on assault charges.

NBC News has not confirmed the suspect’s identity nor the charge.

There have been a number of incidents this month involving planes in Japan.

They include an ANA flight which returned to its departure airport due to a crack being found on the cockpit window of the Boeing 737-800 aircraft mid-air.

Flight 1182 was on a domestic journey last Saturday heading to Toyama airport but then headed back to Sapporo’s New Chitose airport.

The crack was found on the outermost of four layers of windows surrounding the cockpit, a spokesperson for the Japanese airline said.

“The crack was not something that affected the flight’s control or pressurisation,” the spokesperson said. No injuries were reported among 59 passengers and six crew, they added.

On 2 January, a Japan Airlines plane became an inferno after it collided with a coastguard plane at Haneda airport.

All 379 people on board the passenger jet escaped, but five people on the smaller aircraft were killed.

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Also in Japan, two planes made contact on Tuesday this week at an airport, leaving one with damage to its wing.

A Korean Air plane – carrying 289 passengers and crew members – clipped a Cathay Pacific aircraft at New Chitose Airport on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, a Korean Air official said.

The contact happened while the Korean Air plane was preparing for take-off, the airline official said.