JERUSALEM, Israel – At a press conference on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the international media and laid out his plan to defeat Hamas. The prime minister declared he wants to finish Israel’s nearly two-year war with Hamas as soon as possible.
Netanyahu outlined five principles for the next phase of the war.
“One, Hamas disarmed. Second, all hostages freed. Third, Gaza demilitarized. Fourth, Israel has overriding security control. And five, non-Israeli peaceful civilian administration. By that I mean a civilian administration that doesn’t educate its children for terror, doesn’t pay terrorists, and doesn’t launch terrorist attacks against Israel,” he explained.
The prime minister pushed back on claims that Israel has created a humanitarian crisis.
“Contrary to false claims, our policy throughout the war has been to prevent a humanitarian crisis,” he insisted. “While Hamas policy has been to create it since the beginning of the war, Israel has led in close to 2 million tons of aid. I know of no other army that has enabled such aid to go to the civilian population in enemy territory.”
He added, “Now, if we had a starvation policy, no one in Gaza would have survived after two years of war. But our policy has been the exact opposite.”
Sources told JNS News on Sunday that Netanyahu’s allies in the Religious Zionist Party are considering bringing down the government because of their skepticism that the prime minister will make the complete defeat of Hamas the top priority, rather than the release of the hostages.
According to a Channel 14 reporter, sources close to Netanyahu dismissed the criticism, saying there are no plans on the table for a hostage deal.
In his press conference, Netanyahu also slammed the international media for recently publishing photos of young Gazan children who were portrayed as starving but who had pre-existing medical conditions.
“This is outrageous,” he noted while displaying some of the photos. “These are the three most celebrated photos, and they’re all fake. It’s the kind of malignant lies that were leveled at the Jewish people in the Middle Ages.”
Netanyahu continued,” We won’t suffer, we won’t allow it to go unchallenged. And this is the purpose of this press conference. I hope that you open your eyes to a simple fact that Hamas lies.”
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U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee also took to X and exposed CBS for selectively editing a recent interview.
Huckabee asked, “Ever wonder how the media edits an interview to give you a different story than the one they had?”
The ambassador then posted his full, unedited transcript.
In one clip, the reporter asked, “President Trump has said (there) is real starvation in Gaza, and you can’t fake that. And he appeared deeply troubled by images of starving children. Have you been similarly moved?”
Huckabee replied (in the edited version), “I’m moved when the photos are verified.”
The reporter followed up, “But there are real images.”
However, the reporter left out this comment by Huckabee: “I mean, we’re all moved when you see someone, especially a child who’s starving. But The New York Times published a picture on the front page of what was purported to be a starving child. Turns out the child had a birth defect and had not been starving.”
