Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has justified cancelling a visit by a high-ranking Israeli delegation to the United States by saying it was intended to send a message to Hamas, the Palestinian militant group responsible for the massacres in Israel last year. Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday that Hamas believed that international pressure – following a resolution by the UN Security Council calling for a ceasefire – would prevent Israel from destroying Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu said he wanted to let the Islamists know that they could not rely on this pressure having any ef…