CNN
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In his speech to Congress on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struck a defiant tone, pledging to hold on with the struggle in Gaza till Israeli hostages are launched and Hamas is eradicated.
He defended Israel’s actions, pushing again towards criticism that the struggle has gone on for too lengthy and resulted in too many civilian casualties. In doing so, he made various claims concerning the struggle in Gaza that had been both false, lacked context or had been offered with out proof to help them.
We break them down right here:
Declare: Netanyahu stated Israel has “enabled greater than 40,000 assist vehicles to enter Gaza” including that it quantities to “greater than 3,000 energy for each man, girls, and baby in Gaza.”
Truth: More than a dozen assist businesses working within the territory have stated that Israel’s statistics on truck entries “fail to handle a number of very important elements crucial for an efficient operational response”.
“The mere entry of vehicles into Gaza doesn’t assure that the provides attain the meant recipients as a consequence of security and safety causes,” they stated, including that “reported numbers don’t differentiate between kinds of cargo, typically mixing industrial items with crucial humanitarian assist, which obscures the true image of help reaching these in disaster.”
CNN has reported on Israel’s arbitrary and contradictory standards for the entry of assist and the strict guidelines it enforces at checkpoints.
Declare: Netanyahu stated a commander in Rafah advised him that there virtually no civilian deaths within the metropolis except for “a single incident the place shrapnel from a bomb hit a Hamas weapons depot and unintentionally killed two dozen individuals.”
Truth: There have been a number of stories of a number of strikes in Rafah which have resulted in civilian casualties.
The incident Netanyahu appeared to discuss with occurred in Could and killed at the least 45 individuals at a camp for displaced Palestinians. The airstrike injured greater than 200 after a fireplace broke out on the camp following the strike, most of them girls and youngsters, in response to the Gaza Well being Ministry and Palestinian medics.
In the identical week, at least 29 Palestinians had been killed in two separate Israeli assaults on displacement camps in Rafah, in response to Palestinian and UN officers.
CNN has verified movies from Rafah and spoken to a number of well being officers, humanitarian employees and eyewitnesses who’ve reported civilian fatalities on account of Israel’s army assault on the town.
Declare: Netanyahu stated the struggle in Gaza has “one of many lowest ratios of combatants to non-combatant casualties within the historical past of city warfare.”
Truth: Israel has been saying since early on within the struggle that its ratio of civilian to terrorist fatalities may be very low, however specialists have forged doubt on the declare.
In November, then-Israeli army spokesperson Jonathan Conricus advised CNN that Israel believes that it has killed two Palestinian civilians for each Hamas militant, saying the ratio is “tremendously positive.” Requested concerning the claims, Democratic Congressman Seth Moulton, a member of the Home Armed Companies Committee who served in Iraq, advised CNN the feedback had been “lifeless unsuitable,”
Conricus stated that when the Israeli army reported what number of fighters it had killed, it was referring to combatants, “people who find themselves preventing.” In Gaza, hundreds of residents are employed in Hamas-run administrative businesses however perform civilian duties.
Gaza’s Ministry of Well being doesn’t distinguish in its reporting between combatant and civilian deaths however has beforehand stated that some 70% of casualties in all of Gaza have been girls and youngsters.
Open-source monitoring by watchdog group Airwars discovered a “excessive correlation” between the Palestinian Ministry of Well being’s civilian casualty information and what Palestinian civilians “reported on-line,” in response to a brand new report.
Greater than 39,000 individuals have died in in Gaza since October, when Israel launched a struggle towards Hamas after it attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 individuals and taking greater than 250 hostages.
Declare: Netanyahu stated that the US director of nationwide intelligence just lately revealed “that Iran is funding and selling anti-Israel protests in America.” He additionally stated: “When the tyrants of Tehran, who cling gays from cranes and homicide girls for not protecting their hair, are praising, selling and funding you, you might have formally turn into Iran’s helpful idiots.
Truth: The suggestion that almost all or all anti-war protesters are pawns of Iran isn’t correct, however US intelligence has indicated that Iranian authorities actors have tried to pay some protesters.
Final month, the Director of Nationwide Intelligence Avril Haines stated that Iran is attempting to covertly stoke protests within the US associated to the struggle in Gaza, posing as activists on-line and, in some instances, offering monetary help to protesters. However Haines additionally stated she needed “to be clear that I do know People who take part in protests are, in good religion, expressing their views on the battle in Gaza,” including that the intelligence “doesn’t point out in any other case.”
Declare: Netanyahu stated the Worldwide Legal Court docket’s allegation that Israel is starving people of Gaza is “utter, complete nonsense” and a “fabrication”.
Truth: On October 9, Israel declared a “full siege” on Gaza, with Protection Minister Yoav Gallant saying he would halt the provision of electrical energy, meals, water and gasoline to the enclave.
Israel has since eased a few of these restrictions, however assist businesses say the meals that’s moving into the strip is barely a fraction of what’s wanted, resulting in widespread starvation. Israel’s army operations in Gaza, they are saying, additionally hinder the protected distribution of food. In April, USAID Administrator Samantha Energy said it’s “credible” to evaluate that famine is already occurring in components of Gaza.
Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of utilizing hunger as a weapon of struggle, noting that prime rating Israeli officers “have made public statements expressing their intention to deprive civilians in Gaza of meals, water and gasoline” and that the “coverage” is “being carried out by Israeli forces.”
Declare: Netanyahu stated that if Palestinians in Gaza aren’t getting sufficient meals, “it’s not as a result of Israel is obstructing it, it’s as a result of Hamas is stealing it.”
Truth: There have been some anecdotal stories from Gazans of Hamas stealing assist, though it’s not clear how rampant it’s.
Israeli officers have been making the declare that Hamas was stealing assist since October. UN Humanitarian Coordinator Lynn Hastings advised CNN then that Hamas wasn’t stealing assist as a result of assist wasn’t coming in.
US Particular Envoy David Satterfield in February denied the allegations that Hamas has stolen assist, saying that no Israeli official had offered him or the Biden administration with “particular proof of diversion or theft of help.”
US State Division spokesperson Matthew Miller did nonetheless say in Could that one shipment coming from Jordan was briefly diverted by the group earlier than it was recovered by the UN. CNN can’t independently affirm the declare.
Support businesses have said that there have been instances of looting by the general public as a consequence of Israel’s army operation resulting in a breakdown in public order and security.
This story has been up to date with further info.