Hamas says Netanyahu trying to justify war crimes with false claims
The Palestinian group has released a statement in reaction to Benjamin Netanyahu’s press conference, saying his claims constitute a “desperate attempt to exonerate” Israel after it killed more than 61,400 Palestinians in Gaza, including more than 18,000 children.
The Israeli prime minister is trying to “justify war crimes” and distort facts, Hamas said, adding that his use of the term “liberation” is an attempt to distort the reality of occupation “that will not cover up the crime of extermination, killing, and systematic destruction for more than 22 months”.
“His talk about ‘not wanting to occupy Gaza’ is merely deception hiding his plans for forced displacement, destruction of the means of life, and installing an authority subordinate to him.”
Hamas also said Netanyahu is using the captives to prolong the war, and that his claims about allowing large volumes of aid into Gaza are false, as the aid that enters covers less than 10 percent of the needs of the starving enclave.
Vance: What happens in Gaza is ‘up to Benjamin Netanyahu’
Speaking to Fox News a short while ago, the US vice president said that the United States neither endorses nor rejects Israel’s plan to seize Gaza City and the entire Gaza Strip at large.
“Obviously, there are a lot of downsides and upsides to [the plan]”, JD Vance said.
Earlier today, diplomats from countries that include top US allies spoke of the unimaginable humanitarian consequences of an Israeli seizure of Gaza City at the UN Security Council.
Netanyahu, Trump discuss Israel’s plan to seize Gaza City
Netanyahu has spoken with US President Donald Trump about Israel’s plans to seize Gaza City, the Israeli prime minister’s office has announced.
“The two discussed Israel’s plans to take control of the remaining Hamas strongholds in Gaza to bring an end to the war by securing the release of the hostages and defeating Hamas,” Netanyahu’s office said.
On Friday, Israel’s security cabinet approved plans for the takeover, which would involve the forcible removal of Palestinians already displaced multiple times into concentration zones in the south.
Israel’s gambit – Massacre the Palestinians, subjugate the region?
By offering nothing except continual massacre for the Palestinians, and attempting to subjugate the surrounding areas to its will, Israel finds itself “in a predicament of its own making”, argues former Israeli adviser Daniel Levy.
Levy, president of the US/Middle East Project, spoke on Al Jazeera’s Bottom Line and said that Israel has put Arab leaders in a bind, as regional disgust grows towards Israel for its war crimes in Gaza.
And while Western governments and cultural institutions have been carrying water for Israel for decades, argues Levy, some have begun “acknowledging things they worked hard not to acknowledge for an awfully long time.”
Has Israel created a predicament it can’t escape with its zero-sum path for the Palestinians and regional overreach?
