PM insists actions by Western nations demanding end to Gaza war ‘won’t influence’ Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that the harsh rhetoric and punitive actions, including sanctions, from European nations demanding an end to the war in Gaza “will not influence” Israel to change its national security policies.

“European countries will not influence us and they will not cause us to abandon our core objectives — ensuring the security of Israel and the future of Israel,” says Netanyahu at a press conference in Jerusalem.

In recent days, European nations have called on Israel to halt its expanded military campaign in Gaza and lift restrictions on aid for Gazan civilians. On Tuesday, the United Kingdom announced a pause in free trade talks with Israel and imposed sanctions on West Bank settlers, a day after the leaders of the UK, France, and Canada issued a joint statement explicitly threatening to take action against Israel if it does not end the conflict and allow in aid.

“We will do what is necessary to complete the war,” says the premier.

“It is a badge of shame that Britain, instead of imposing sanctions on Hamas, is imposing sanctions on a woman who is threatened daily on the roads of Judea and Samaria by Hamas terrorists,” Netanyahu also, likely referring to veteran settler leader Daniella Weiss.

“It’s a total loss of moral direction. These countries are under pressure — from the Islamic minority within them, and from public opinion shaped by Hamas’s false propaganda,” the premier says.

Netanyahu says that “the sanctions that are truly concerning” would be imposed by the United Nations Security Council. “Binding sanctions — a resolution we will not allow,” he asserts.

According to Netanyahu, as a condition for releasing hostages and agreeing to end the war, Hamas is demanding the UN Security Council pass a resolution providing for binding sanctions that would damage Israel’s economy and national security were it to resume fighting the terror group at a later time. Such a resolution, if it passed, would be impossible to revoke, he says.

“That’s why we reject this condition [of ending the war.] It’s a childish condition promoted by people who don’t understand what they’re talking about, saying: ‘What’s the problem with ending the war on Hamas’s terms? Just get the hostages out and then go back in’,” says Netanyahu.

“They’re forgetting…it won’t come for free. You’d have to evacuate the entire Gaza Strip. There would be a binding resolution in the Security Council that would crash Israel’s economy completely, and also our security systems. It’s insane. Simply insane,” he continues.

“This is Hamas’s goal,” he says. “They want to stop the war, end it, and push through a binding Security Council resolution — one that would compel 180 countries to impose sanctions on us.”

“All those images — the hunger, the claims that ‘44,000 children are about to die’ — all of that false propaganda echoes over there, and they cave to it,” says the premier, possibly referring to a debunked UN claim earlier this week that 14,000 babies in Gaza would soon die if proper nutrition doesn’t reach them.

“I won’t cave to it. I will do what needs to be done,” says Netanyahu, adding that he also rejects the prospect of European nations unilaterally recognizing a Palestinian state.

“We strongly oppose their intention to give Hamas the ultimate prize — to recognize a Palestinian state. After October 7, after we saw what a de facto Palestinian state looks like — it was called Gaza. Hamas’s Gaza. Hamastan. And now they want to create another one? There is no greater reward for terror,” says Netanyahu.

He says Israel has “smashed” terror cells in West Bank refugee camps in an unprecedented way. “We are not capitulating to any terrorist — in Yemen, Gaza, Lebanon or Judea and Samaria.”