Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of the US Congress as his nation wages a warfare in Gaza that has killed greater than 39,000 Palestinians.
Netanyahu on Wednesday offered a protection of Israel’s warfare, launched on Oct. 7, the day Hamas and different Palestinian armed teams carried out assaults on Israeli territory that killed 1,139 folks.
The prime minister spoke of a plan for what he known as a “deradicalized Gaza after the warfare,” however supplied few particulars past the assertion that Israel would keep safety management over the strip. In the meantime, outdoors Congress, protesters demanded he be prosecuted for alleged warfare crimes, whereas households of some Israeli captives held in Gaza have been evicted from the constructing for demanding solutions from the Israeli prime minister.
What have been the principle claims Netanyahu made in his speech and to what extent have been they true? Al Jazeera verifies the prime minister’s speech:
On the assaults in Rafah
Netanyahu: “Do you bear in mind what so many individuals stated? If Israel enters Rafah, there can be 1000’s, perhaps even tens of 1000’s of civilians killed. Properly, final week, I went to Rafah. I visited our troops as they completed combating the remaining Hamas terrorist battalions. I requested the commander there: “What number of terrorists did you eradicate in Rafah?” He gave me an actual determine: 1,203. I requested him: “What number of civilians have been killed?” He replied: “Prime Minister, virtually none. Aside from a single incident, when shrapnel from a bomb hit a Hamas weapons depot and unintentionally killed two dozen folks, the reply is virtually none.”
The details: At the very least 45 folks, together with kids, have been killed in a single assault when Israel fired rockets at a camp for displaced Palestinians within the southern Gaza Metropolis in late Might. As horrific scenes of the bloodbath emerged, prompting world condemnation, the United Nations stated Rafah was like “hell on Earth”.
By then, most of Gaza’s 2.3 million folks have been crammed into town and surrounding areas after fleeing different elements of the enclave because of the warfare and Israeli evacuation orders. From Might 6 by Wednesday, Israel had killed greater than 4,300 folks within the Strip, repeatedly concentrating on colleges and areas designated by Israel as “protected.”
Israel additionally killed dozens, if not a whole lot, of individuals in Rafah in rocket assaults earlier than its forces entered town.
And though Netanyahu stated the Israeli army had killed 1,203 Palestinian fighters, there was no impartial verification of the declare that these described as “terrorists” have been in reality people belonging to armed teams.
An Israeli offensive in #Rafael It might imply extra struggling and civilian deaths. The results can be devastating for 1.4 million folks.@UNRWA There isn’t a evacuation: the Company will keep a presence in Rafah for so long as potential and proceed to supply very important help to folks. picture.twitter.com/8anQ8Eq6Gv
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) Might 6, 2024
On help vans to Gaza
Netanyahu: “Israel has allowed greater than 40,000 vans of humanitarian help into Gaza, which quantities to half one million tons of meals and greater than 3,000 energy for each man, girl and youngster in Gaza. If there are Palestinians in Gaza who don’t obtain sufficient meals, it’s not as a result of Israel prevents them from doing so, however as a result of Hamas steals it from them.”
The details: At first of the warfare, Israel imposed a complete blockade on already besieged Gaza, together with a ban on meals, water, drugs and different important provides. Whereas this was later eased considerably underneath world stress, the details on the bottom – as reported by the UN, Al Jazeera’s personal protection and different impartial organisations – are removed from the image painted by Netanyahu.
Earlier than the warfare started, Gaza acquired a median of 500 truckloads of help a day. For the reason that warfare started, the UN has recorded a complete of 30,630 vans of help, not 40,000 as Netanyahu stated. That is a median of 104 vans a day, simply one-fifth of the pre-war quantity.
And opposite to the Israeli prime minister’s declare that there was sufficient meals for the inhabitants of Gaza, UN specialists declared in July that famine had unfold all through Gaza.
On the protests in opposition to Israel
Netanyahu: “Just lately, the US director of nationwide intelligence instructed us that Iran is funding and selling anti-Israel protests in the US. They wish to destabilize the US.”
“So far as we all know, Iran is funding the anti-Israel protests which can be happening proper now in entrance of this constructing – there aren’t many, however they’re there – and everywhere in the metropolis. Properly, I’ve a message for these protesters: When the tyrants of Tehran, who dangle gays from cranes and homicide girls for not protecting their hair, reward them, promote them and fund them, they’ve formally grow to be Iran’s helpful idiots.”
The details: Netanyahu offered no proof that Iran is funding the protesters.
On July 10, Avril Haines, the US director of nationwide intelligence, stated that Iran’s authorities was secretly encouraging US protests in an try to spark outrage forward of the US elections in November.
“Iran is changing into more and more aggressive in its efforts to affect overseas affairs, with the aim of sowing discord and undermining confidence in our democratic establishments,” Haines stated.
However Haines made no point out of funding.
In April, anti-war protests erupted on school campuses throughout the US and all over the world. Tensions escalated when New York police made mass arrests throughout protests at Columbia College.
On assaults on civilians
Netanyahu: “The ICC [International Criminal Court] The prosecutor accuses Israel of intentionally concentrating on civilians. What the hell is he speaking about? [Israeli military] “Hamas has dropped hundreds of thousands of leaflets, despatched hundreds of thousands of textual content messages and made a whole lot of 1000’s of telephone calls to get Palestinian civilians out of hurt’s approach. However on the similar time, Hamas does every part in its energy to place Palestinian civilians in peril. They fireplace rockets from colleges, hospitals and mosques.”
The details: As of Monday, the Israeli army had marked 83 p.c of the Gaza Strip as unsafe for Palestinian civilians. This a part of the enclave has both been declared a “no-go zone” by Israel or residents have been issued evacuation orders, the UN stated. Whole neighborhoods in northern Gaza have been demolished, whereas “protected zones” in southern Gaza are shrinking.
Civilians evacuating their neighbourhoods on Israeli orders have been repeatedly attacked. The identical occurred when Israeli forces issued an evacuation order on Tuesday affecting 400,000 folks in Khan Younis.
“The evacuation order was issued within the context of ongoing Israeli army assaults and didn’t give civilians time to know which areas they need to depart and the place they need to go. Regardless of the evacuation order, Israeli army operations continued unabated in and across the space,” the United Nations Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated in a press launch.
The brand new evacuation orders issued immediately in Khan Younis imply extra struggling and displacement. Households have needed to collect their remaining belongings and flee, amid shelling and with nowhere protected to go.
Individuals in #Loop They’re exhausted, residing in inhuman circumstances, with none safety. picture.twitter.com/LSYTEBxMRM
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 22, 2024
Israel has additionally relied closely on “dumb bombs,” which aren’t designed to hit exact targets however to trigger devastation over giant areas. In December, amid escalating assaults on the besieged Strip, a U.S. intelligence evaluation revealed that almost half of the munitions utilized by Israel in Gaza have been unguided bombs.
“The revelation [that] “Virtually half of all bombs dropped on Gaza by Israel are unguided dumb bombs, utterly belying its declare of minimizing hurt to civilians,” wrote Marc Garlasco, a former UN warfare crimes investigator, on social media.
There have additionally been circumstances the place troopers have killed unarmed civilians holding white flags. In June, OCHA printed a report stating that greater than 76% of Gaza’s colleges have been in want of “full reconstruction or main rehabilitation.” In the meantime, in keeping with Palestinian authorities, 8,572 college students have been killed in Gaza between 7 October and three July.
On the ceasefire negotiations
Netanyahu: “The warfare in Gaza may finish tomorrow if Hamas surrenders, disarms and returns all of the hostages, but when it doesn’t, Israel will struggle till we destroy Hamas’ army capabilities, finish its rule in Gaza and produce all our hostages dwelling.”
The details: Netanyahu has repeatedly indicated that he won’t settle for any deal that may finish the warfare until Hamas is destroyed. The aim of eliminating Hamas has been described as unattainable by Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the Israeli army itself.
Through the years, Hamas has repeatedly supplied peace offers in trade for the creation of a sovereign and impartial Palestinian state.
Israel has rejected such presents, arguing that Hamas can’t be trusted to respect a long-term ceasefire and insisting that proposals for short-term pauses in combating are disingenuous and aimed solely at serving to the armed motion regroup from losses.