Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the US Congress on Wednesday was riddled with deceptive claims about his nation’s conflict in Gaza.
Dozens of lawmakers boycotted the speech, whereas 1000’s of pro-Palestinian protesters occupied components of the US Capitol to demand Netanyahu’s arrest for alleged conflict crimes and genocide dedicated by Israeli forces in Gaza.
His speech, which former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi known as the “worst” ever delivered by a overseas dignitary in Congress, was riddled with false statements.
Lots of them have been addressed to the Worldwide Felony Courtroom (ICC), whose prosecutors requested arrest warrants towards Israeli leaders in Could.
Hamas is “stealing” assist from Gaza
Netanyahu rejected the ICC’s accusation that Israel is obstructing assist shipments to Gaza, saying it has facilitated the entry of greater than 40,000 vehicles of assist into the strip.
“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,” he mentioned.
Based on the UN, 28,018 vehicles carrying assist have entered the Strip since October.
However since Israeli forces seized the Rafah crossing in Could, one of many few routes out and in of Gaza, solely 2,835 assist vehicles have entered the Palestinian enclave.
Assist organisations and UN officers have repeatedly criticised Israel’s restrictions on assist as famine looms within the strip.
In March, the United Nations’ starvation monitoring system, the Built-in Meals Safety Part Classification (IPC), warned that Gaza was getting ready to famine and projected this might happen by Could.
A second report launched in June concluded {that a} excessive danger of famine persists throughout the territory, with half one million Palestinians going through hunger.
Israel has taken “extra precautions to stop hurt to civilians than any army in historical past”
Netanyahu mentioned Israeli forces have finished all the pieces doable to guard Palestinian civilians, saying they distributed “hundreds of thousands of leaflets, despatched hundreds of thousands of textual content messages and made tons of of 1000’s of cellphone calls to get Palestinian civilians out of hazard.”
Israeli forces periodically challenge evacuation orders and typically distribute leaflets to warn Palestinians of their intention to assault an space, however these measures do little to stop civilian deaths.
On July 22, the Israeli military started shelling the japanese neighborhoods of Khan Younis, a beforehand designated humanitarian zone internet hosting 400,000 Palestinians, minutes after issuing an evacuation order.
In a June report, the UN assessed six Israeli assaults that precipitated massive numbers of deaths and concluded that Israeli forces had constantly failed to reduce hurt to civilians.
Nearly all of the 39,000 confirmed deaths in Gaza are civilians, in accordance with UN and well being ministry figures.
On October 7, Hamas “burned infants alive”
Netanyahu repeated unsubstantiated claims that Hamas “burned infants alive” throughout its assault on southern Israel on October 7. He additionally advised a narrative of Hamas fighters murdering two infants who have been hiding within the attic of a household house.
These claims are amongst many testimonies of the Hamas assault carried out by Israeli personnel that the Haaretz newspaper deemed false.
Among the many allegations was an account by Golan Vach, head of Israel’s army search and rescue service, who claimed to have seen the our bodies of burned infants. The army mentioned Vach mistakenly mentioned infants when he truly meant kids.
An Israeli soldier additionally mentioned in an interview that “there have been infants and youngsters hanging on a clothesline one after one other.” The military denied this, saying he was a reservist who didn’t communicate in an official capability.
Netanyahu himself advised US President Joe Biden that Palestinians “tied up dozens of youngsters,” burned them and executed them.
There is no such thing as a accessible proof to counsel that teams of lifeless kids have been discovered on the identical location matching the outline supplied by Netanyahu, in accordance with Haaretz.
Article initially revealed in Center East Eye.
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