Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of the U.S. Congress as Israel waged a warfare in Gaza that has killed greater than 39,000 Palestinians.
Netanyahu on Wednesday issued a protection of the Israeli warfare launched on October 7, the day Hamas and different Palestinian armed teams launched assaults on Israeli territory that killed 1,139 folks.
The prime minister spoke of a plan for what he known as the “post-war deradicalization of Gaza” however provided few particulars past claiming that Israel would retain safety management over the strip. In the meantime, exterior parliament, protesters known as for him to be prosecuted for alleged warfare crimes as some relations of Israeli prisoners held in Gaza had been ejected from the constructing as they demanded solutions from the Israeli prime minister.
So what had been the important thing claims Netanyahu made in his speech? Al Jazeera fact-checked the Prime Minister’s speech:
About Rafa’s assault
Netanyahu: “Keep in mind what lots of people stated? If Israel entered Rafah, 1000’s, possibly tens of 1000’s, of civilians can be killed. Nicely, final week, I went to Rafah. When our troops ended up preventing the remaining Hamas terrorists I visited them in the course of the preventing. I requested the commander there: “What number of terrorists did you kill in Rafah? ” He gave me an actual quantity: 1,203. I requested him, “What number of civilians had been killed?” “Prime Minister, virtually none,” he stated. “Apart from one incident the place shrapnel from a bomb hit a Hamas weapons depot and inadvertently killed twenty folks, the reply is definitely no.”
truth: In late Could, Israel fired missiles at a camp for displaced Palestinians within the southern metropolis of Gaza, killing no less than 45 folks, together with youngsters, in a single assault. As horrific scenes of the bloodbath emerged, drawing worldwide condemnation, the United Nations described Rafah as “hell on earth”.
On the time, most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents fled different elements of the enclave and had been pressured into the town and its surrounding areas due to the warfare and Israeli evacuation orders. From Could 6 to Wednesday, Israel killed greater than 4,300 folks within the strip and repeatedly attacked colleges and Israeli-designated “protected zones.”
Israel additionally killed dozens, if not a whole lot, of individuals in rocket assaults earlier than Israeli troops entered Rafah.
Though Netanyahu stated Israeli forces had killed 1,203 Palestinian fighters, there was no unbiased verification that these described as “terrorists” really belonged to armed teams.
israel offensive #rafa It will imply extra struggling and demise for civilians. The implications can be devastating for 1.4 million folks@UNRWA No evacuation: The company will stay in Rafah so long as attainable and can proceed to supply life-saving help to folks pic.twitter.com/8anQ8Eq6Gv
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) May 6, 2024
Help vans heading to Gaza
Netanyahu: “Israel has allowed greater than 40,000 assist vans into Gaza. That is half one million tons of meals. That is greater than 3,000 energy for each man, lady and little one in Gaza. If Palestinians in Gaza do not get sufficient meals , that is not as a result of Israel is obstructing it, it is as a result of Hamas is stealing it.
truth: At first of the warfare, Israel imposed a complete blockade on already-besieged Gaza, which included a ban on the provision of meals, water, medication and different requirements. Whereas the scenario later eased below international stress, the fact is way from what Netanyahu painted, in accordance with experiences from the United Nations, Al Jazeera’s personal reporting and different unbiased organizations.
Earlier than the warfare broke out, Gaza acquired a median of 500 assist vans a day. The United Nations has recorded a complete of 30,630 assist vans for the reason that warfare started, not 40,000 as Netanyahu stated. There have been a median of 104 vans per day, solely one-fifth of the pre-war quantity.
Opposite to the Israeli prime minister’s claims that the folks of Gaza had sufficient to eat, United Nations consultants declared in July that famine had unfold all through Gaza.
About anti-Israel protests
Netanyahu: “We lately discovered from the U.S. Director of Nationwide Intelligence that Iran is funding and driving anti-Israel protests in the USA. They wish to disrupt the USA.
“We all know that Iran is funding the anti-Israel protests which are occurring exterior this constructing — they’re small, however they’re there — and all through the town. Nicely, I’ve a message for these protesters: When the tyrants in Tehran – who grasp gays from cranes and homicide ladies for not protecting their hair – reward, promote and fund you, you’re formally Iran’s helpful idiots.
truth: Netanyahu has offered no proof that Iran is funding the protesters.
On July 10, U.S. Director of Nationwide Intelligence Avril Haines did say that the Iranian authorities was secretly encouraging U.S. protests in an effort to stoke anger forward of the U.S. election in November.
“Iran’s efforts to affect overseas affairs have change into more and more aggressive, designed to sow discord and undermine confidence in our democratic establishments,” Haines stated.
However Haynes didn’t point out funding.
In April, antiwar protests broke out on faculty campuses throughout the USA and around the globe. Tensions escalated when New York police made mass arrests throughout protests at Columbia College.
Concerning focusing on civilians
Netanyahu: “Worldwide Legal Court docket [International Criminal Court] Prosecutors accuse Israel of intentionally focusing on civilians. What’s he speaking about in God’s inexperienced earth? this [Israeli military] Thousands and thousands of leaflets have been dropped, hundreds of thousands of textual content messages despatched, and a whole lot of 1000’s of telephone calls made to place Palestinian civilians out of hurt’s means. However on the identical time, Hamas is doing its finest to place Palestinian civilians in danger. They fired rockets from colleges, hospitals, mosques.
truth: As of Monday, the Israeli navy had marked 83% of the Gaza Strip as unsafe for Palestinian civilians. In response to the United Nations, the enclave has both been declared a “no-go zone” by Israel or residents have been issued evacuation orders. Total neighborhoods in northern Gaza have been demolished, whereas the “protected zone” in southern Gaza is shrinking.
Civilians who evacuated their communities on orders from Israel had been repeatedly attacked. The identical was true on Tuesday when the Israeli military issued an evacuation order affecting 400,000 folks in Khan Younis.
“The evacuation order was issued in opposition to the backdrop of ongoing assaults by the Israeli navy, leaving civilians with no time to know which areas they wanted to depart or the place they need to go. Regardless of the evacuation order, Israeli navy operations in and across the space continued , growing unabated.
At the moment, new evacuation orders in Khan Younis imply extra struggling and displacement. The household should pack up their remaining belongings and flee amid the bombing, with nowhere to flee.
persons are #gaza They’re exhausted, dwelling in inhumane circumstances with none security. pic.twitter.com/LSYTEBxMRM
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 22, 2024
Israel additionally depends closely on “dumb bombs,” bombs whose goal is to not strike a exact goal however to trigger widespread injury. In December, amid escalating assaults on the besieged Gaza Strip, a U.S. intelligence evaluation confirmed that just about half of the munitions utilized by Israel in Gaza had been unguided bombs.
“This revelation [that] Nearly half of all of the bombs Israel dropped on Gaza had been unguided dumb bombs, utterly undermining their claims of minimizing civilian hurt,” former UN warfare crimes investigator Marc Garlasco stated on social media wrote.
There have additionally been situations of troopers killing unarmed civilians holding white flags. As of June, the Workplace for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that greater than 76% of colleges in Gaza wanted “complete reconstruction or main repairs.” Moreover, in accordance with the Palestinian Authority, 8,572 college students had been killed in Gaza between October 7 and July 3.
Concerning ceasefire negotiations
Netanyahu: “The warfare in Gaza might finish tomorrow if Hamas surrenders, disarms and returns all hostages, but when they do not, Israel will proceed to combat till we destroy Hamas’s navy capabilities and finish its rule in Gaza,” And convey all our hostages house.
truth: Netanyahu has repeatedly stated he is not going to comply with any deal to finish the warfare except Hamas is destroyed. Israeli navy spokesman Daniel Hagari stated the purpose of eliminating Hamas was unattainable.
Hamas has repeatedly proposed peace offers over time in alternate for the institution of a sovereign, unbiased Palestinian state.
Israel has rejected the affords, arguing that Hamas can’t be trusted to abide by any long-term ceasefire and insisting that proposals for a short-term pause in preventing are disingenuous and have a strategic goal solely to assist the armed motion regroup from its losses.
