Benjamín Netanyahu has offered his first press conference on Wednesday since December and has reiterated that his goal is to control the entire Gaza Strip when the offensive that the Israeli army intensified last weekend ended, starting the baptized as operation ‘Gideon cars’. “At the end of this campaign, all the territories of the Gaza Strip will be under Israel’s security control,” said Prime Minister.
Challenging the international calls of its European allies, as well as the pressure measures announced yesterday by both the European Union and the United Kingdom, Netanyahu has responded that those who ask Israel to stop the war ahead of time are “basically calling the maintenance of Gaza’s control by Hamas.” Asked if Israel would be willing to assume sanctions for his offensive in Gaza, Netanyahu has not hesitated: “We will continue doing what is necessary to complete the war,” he said in statements collected by the EFE agency.
On Tuesday, the EU announced that it will review the commercial agreement with Israel, after a majority of the 27 governments have positioned themselves in favor of reviewing it by understanding that Tel Aviv is violating article 2, which establishes the obligation to comply with international law and human rights. The British government also announced the suspension of its commercial negotiations with Israel and new sanctions against people and organizations in the settlements of the occupied West Bank. In addition, complaints have come from the images of the famine in Gaza.
Western governments have raised the pressure on Israel when verifying the humanitarian crisis that has caused with more than two and a half months of absolute blockage of humanitarian aid, which since March 2 had not entered Gaza until this week, when the Hebrew Executive decided to allow the entry of a ridiculous amount. Netanyahu has admitted to journalists that his allies “cannot accept a situation in which there is a humanitarian crisis in Gaza.” “We must avoid a humanitarian crisis to preserve our operational freedom” in the strip, he added.
The prime minister explained that he has a plan to distribute the basic supplies to the population of Gaza, without being falling into Hamas, in coordination with the United States. The Plan plans to establish food distribution points, managed by US companies and protected by Israeli forces, and create a “sterile zone” in the south of the enclave where civilians receive “complete humanitarian assistance”, according to the details collected The Guardian. The civilian population will be displaced south “from the fighting areas for security reasons,” according to Netanyahu, who has not indicated the extension of that area. The Israeli army already controls large parts of the strip and 80% of the territory is occupied or under military evacuation orders, while Gazaties are overcrowded in increasingly reduced areas.
Netanyahu has reiterated that Hamas must disarm and that Israel has to have security guarantees to end the war that began after the attacks of the Islamist group of October 7, 2023. Since then, the Army has killed about 53,000 Palestinians, most minors and women, according to local authorities. During his assault on the Jewish communities close to the border with Gaza, Hamas killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped another 251; Of these, 58 remain retained in the Strip and the prime minister has said on Wednesday that he is only certain that 20 are still alive.
Source: www.eldiario.es
