Tel Aviv [Israel], March 11: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected US President Joe Biden's claim that Israel's approach to the war in Gaza 'hurts Israel more than it helps Israel', reflecting a growing rift between the two allies .
In an interview with Politico on March 10, Prime Minister Netanyahu said, if President Biden means "I am pursuing personal policies against the majority, contrary to the wishes of the majority of Israelis and this is harm Israel's interests, he is wrong on both counts."
Mr. Netanyahu spoke a day after Mr. Biden said in an interview with MSNBC that the Israeli prime minister "must be more mindful of the innocent people who have lost their lives because of the actions being taken" in the Gaza Strip . "In my view, he is hurting Israel more than helping Israel," Mr. Biden said.
The US is a key ally of Israel and still opposes a ceasefire in Gaza despite pressure from the international community. But President Biden's administration increasingly shows that it is losing patience with Prime Minister Netanyahu because of disagreements on many issues, including the future of post-war Gaza.
The above words appear in the context that Mr. Netanyahu is facing great pressure at home when he has not yet brought back the hostages held by Hamas forces. This has led to frequent protests in Israel as well as calls for early elections.
Netanyahu told Politico that "the vast majority (of Israelis) are more united than ever and they understand what is good for Israel." He also asserted that his policies are supported by "the vast majority of Israelis", and that they support "the action we are taking to destroy the remaining terrorist battalions of Hamas".
In the interview, Netanyahu also disputed the conflict death toll statistics released by health authorities in Gaza, saying their figures included "at least 13,000 terrorists" killed by Israeli forces. extermination.
According to an AFP tally using official Israeli data, the fighting in Gaza began with an unprecedented attack by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,160 people, mostly civilians. civilians but also includes Israeli soldiers.
According to the Gaza health authority (run by Hamas), Israel's retaliatory military campaign has claimed the lives of at least 31,045 people in Gaza, mainly women and children.
But according to Mr. Netanyahu, the number of civilians killed in Gaza "is not 30,000, not even 20,000, but much less than that."
"How do I know that? Because our forces have killed at least 13,000 terrorists," he told Politico , without explaining where that statistic came from.
Hamas, the political -military force in Palestine that has controlled Gaza since 2007, is considered a terrorist organization by many Western countries. The group has not said how many of its members were killed in the fighting.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
