Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned allegations of famine in the Gaza Strip as the product of a “global campaign of lies” in a speech on Sunday, while defending his government’s plan to take military control of Gaza City. He also promised to “bring in more foreign journalists” to Gaza, who have not been permitted beyond military embeds in 22 months of the war between Israel and Hamas.
Netanyahu rejected international allegations that, by denying the entry of aid into Gaza, the Israeli military has inflicted famine upon its population, turning attention toward Israeli hostages still being held by Hamas. “Despite Hamas’s obstacles, two million people are now getting access to humanitarian aid,” he said. “But I’ll tell you who isn’t. The only ones who are being deliberately starved in Gaza are our hostages.”
“The purpose of this news conference is to puncture the lies and spread the truth,” Netanyahu continued. “It’s the kind of malignant lies that were leveled in the Middle Ages that we won’t suffer.”
To support his case that Hamas and international organizations are lying about famine in Gaza, Netanyahu addressed specific images of emaciated children in Gaza publicized by media. Run alongside stories of widespread child starvation, such images showed multiple children who suffered from pre-existing medical conditions without including that context.
One image Netanyahu cited was of Osama al-Rakab, a five-year-old boy suffering from a serious genetic disease who has since been transported to Italy by Israel for medical treatment. Another image published by the New York Times in an article titled “Gazans Are Dying of Starvation” was of Mohammed Zakaria al-Mutawaq, a one-year-old infant who suffers from cerebral palsy.
The Times had selected an image of Mutawaq that excludes his older brother, who is visibly not emaciated. After an image of both children was circulated on social media, the Times published an editor’s note. Had the newspaper known about Mutawaq’s health condition before publication, the note said, “it would have been included in the article and the picture caption.”
Despite excoriating international media’s coverage of the Gaza War, Netanyahu committed to allowing more foreign journalists into the territory. “I’ve ordered, directed the military to bring in foreign journalists, more foreign journalists – a lot,” he said.
In his speech, Netanyahu also elaborated on his government’s plans to take control of Gaza City, which houses approximately 740,000 Palestinians, and declared that the operation would be more sweeping than previously announced. Israel “has no choice but to finish the job and complete the defeat of Hamas,” he said.
Netanyahu said that the Israeli military would aim to dismantle Hamas strongholds not only in Gaza City but in refugee camps in the central and southern areas of Gaza as well. Those camps are currently holding roughly half a million residents of Gaza who have been displaced by the war.
The refugee camps were not mentioned in Friday’s announcement that Israel would seek to control Gaza City. Netanyahu had reportedly faced criticism within his ruling coalition that his Security Cabinet’s plan to target Hamas in Gaza City was insufficient.
To deal with the fallout of the Israeli military entering Gaza City and the camps, Netanyahu stressed that his government would establish new “safe zones” in Gaza. Such zones have been struck by Israel in the past, however, in operations against Hamas.
He also said that Israel would provide additional humanitarian aid to the Gaza “civilian population outside the combat zones.” Netanyahu asserted, however, that “There is no hunger. There was no hunger. There was a shortage, and there was certainly no policy of starvation.”
Netanyahu said that he had discussed the Israeli Security Cabinet’s plan with U.S. President Donald Trump, thanking him for his “steadfast support” of Israel throughout the war.
The prime minister’s speech included a presentation of Israel’s updated war aims in Gaza. His “principles of concluding the war” included disarming Hamas, freeing the remaining Israeli hostages, and demilitarizing the Gaza Strip. Israel will now also seek “overriding security control of Gaza,” eventually aiming to transition the territory to “non-Israeli peaceful security administration.”
“Our goal is not to occupy Gaza, our goal is to free Gaza,” Netanyahu said.