Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Thursday that although Israel is making every effort to keep civilians out of har while fighting Hamas in Gaza, including delivering flyers advising people to evacuate, its attempts to reduce the number of casualties were “not successful.”
When asked if Israel’s killing of thousands of Palestinians in retaliation for the October 7 attack by Hamas militants in Gaza would inspire a new wave of hatred, Netanyahu answered in the negative when interviewed by US television’s CBS News.
“Any civilian death is a tragedy. And we shouldn’t have any because we’re doing everything we can to get the civilians out of harm’s way, while Hamas is doing everything to keep them in harm’s way,” Netanyahu said.
“So we send leaflets, (we) call them on their cell phones, and we say: ‘leave’. And many have left,” Netanyahu said.
The main goal of Israel’s military is to destroy Hamas. The other thing that I can say is that we’ll try to finish that job with minimal civilian casualties. That’s what we’re trying to do: minimal civilian casualties. But unfortunately, we’re not successful.”
Israel’s weeks-long military campaign against Hamas, which it claims killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, has primarily affected Palestinian civilians. Additionally, Israel claims that approximately 240 individuals of various nationalities were held captive by Hamas.
At least 11,500 people have been confirmed killed in an Israeli bombardment and ground invasion, more than 4,700 of them children, according to Gaza health authorities that the UN considered credible.
The conflict has left two-thirds of the 2.3 million people living in the Gaza Strip homeless.
