Politics Netanyahu: Israel is not targeting civilians in Gaza
Speaking to Congress in Washington, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected accusations that Israel is deliberately targeting civilians in the Gaza war. "The Israeli army has dropped millions of leaflets, millions of text messages, hundreds of thousands of phone calls to prevent harm to Palestinian civilians," Netanyahu said.
24.07.2024, 21:18
SDA
At the same time, the Islamist Palestinian organization Hamas had "done everything in its power to put Palestinian civilians in danger". They had fired rockets from schools, hospitals and mosques, for example. He accused Hamas of abusing civilians as human shields. "What monstrous wickedness. For Israel, every civilian death is a tragedy - for Hamas, it's a strategy."
He also said that there had been relatively few civilian casualties in the Gaza war compared to wars in residential areas in other countries. Civilian casualties were particularly low in the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip. This contradicts the figures from the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health. However, these do not distinguish between civilians and combatants killed.
In May, the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Karim Khan, requested arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Defence Minister Joav Galant as well as three leaders of the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas for alleged crimes against humanity. The court must first decide on these applications.
