PM insists Israel never adopted policy of starvation in Gaza

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that while there was a “shortage” of food in Gaza, Israel never adopted a starvation policy in Gaza or caused starvation in the Strip.

Asked during a press conference in Jerusalem why Israel has not implemented harsher measures in Gaza to pressure or defeat Hamas — such as the so-called “Generals’ Plan,” proposed by retired IDF general Giora Eiland, which called for emptying northern Gaza of civilians and imposing a siege on those who remained — Netanyahu says the proposal was intended to starve Gaza City and “was not our intention, and was not our action.”

He says that the “humanitarian city” idea, pushed by Defense Minister Israel Katz, is simply what Israel is already doing: “That there will be areas…in which we will allow the population to leave combat areas, and to receive humanitarian aid.”

Netanyahu says he regularly receives criticism from both the left and the right, and that it does not move him.

“I don’t intend to stop here. I don’t intend to leave those monsters in their place,” he says, referring to Hamas terrorists.

He says the cabinet decision to conquer Gaza City last week is the “first step” in the push for the battlefield defeat of Hamas.

“I don’t intend to lay out the rest of the steps,” he adds, saying that the subsequent moves were discussed in the security cabinet meeting.

“The minute you collapse the center of gravity, the last true fortress left to Hamas in Gaza, Hamas falls apart,” argues Netanyahu, adding, “I think Hamas thinks so too.”