Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has calimed that Israel is trying to minimise civilian casualties in Gaza but has been “not successful”, and is blaming Hamas.
A panel of UN experts has accused Israel of conducting “genocide” and “war crimes”
Netanyahu told CBS that Israel would “try to finish the job” of wiping out Hamas in Gaza with minimal civilian casualties. He added: “That’s what we’re trying to do: minimal civilian casualties. But unfortunately, we’re not successful.”
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ZeroHedge reports: He presented the context as one where Hamas was preventing civilians from leaving northern Gaza “at gun point”. He claimed that Hamas “fired at the safe corridors that we provided for the Palestinians.”
Israel has dropped hundreds of thousands of leaflets over Gaza in the past weeks, warning civilians to exit northern Gaza, which includes the highly populated Gaza City, and move to the south. But just this week Israel has also told areas in the south to evacuate too. Palestinians have said they have nowhere to go, also as the Rafah crossing to Egypt remains closed to all but foreign passport holders.
“Any civilian death is a tragedy. And we shouldn’t have any because we’re doing everything we can to get the civilians out of harm’s way, while Hamas is doing everything to keep them in harm’s way,” Netanyahu explained.
Palestinian officials have sought to refute the Israeli/US narrative framing of the Gaza crisis at the UN:
The White House has very belatedly begun to warn Israel it must exercise restraint when it comes to “targets” like Al-Shifa hospital. Israel now has military control of it, but many Palestinians have remained inside.
According to Al Jazeera, at least 22 mostly ICU patients have died overnight. A Friday report cites Al-Shifa Director Muhammed Abu Salmiya who says that “7000 people — patients, medics and other civilians seeking shelter — are trapped in the hospital, and the complex remains cut of from water, electricity and communications.”
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