Rejecting international pressure to halt the war in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared that if “forced,” Israel will “stand alone” in its war against Hamas.
Netanyahu spoke after President Joe Biden said the United States would not provide offensive weapons for Israel’s long-promised assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
“As the Prime Minister of Israel, the one and only Jewish State, I pledge here today, from Jerusalem, on this Holocaust Remembrance Day, if Israel is forced to stand alone, Israel will stand alone. But we know we are not alone, because countless decent people around the world support our just cause. And I say to you we will defeat our genocidal enemies,” Netanyahu said on Thursday.
The Israeli PM said that when Jewish people were defenceless 80 years ago, no nation came for their help. “Eighty years ago, in the Holocaust, the Jewish people were totally defenceless against those who sought our destruction. No nation came to our aid, ” Israeli PM said in a fiery speech marking the country’s annual Holocaust memorial day.
“Today, we again confront enemies bent on our destruction. I say to the leaders of the world, no amount of pressure, no decision by any international forum will stop Israel from defending itself,” he said.
Netanyahu added, “If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone. If we need to, we will fight with our fingernails. But we have much more than fingernails.”
Yom Hashoah, the day Israel observes as a memorial for the 6 million Jews killed by Nazi Germany and its allies in the Holocaust.
The conflict in Gaza escalated after the October 7 attack by Hamas, where about 2,500 terrorists breached the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip, leading to casualties and the seizure of hostages.
Israel has since, characterised its Gaza offensive as targeting Hamas’ infrastructure with the goal of eliminating the entire terror group while making efforts to minimize civilian casualties.
On May 5, Hamas fired a barrage of rockets from the area of the Rafah border crossing and near an area where displaced Palestinians were sheltering in tents.
The barrage targeted the Kerem Shalom border crossing, killing four soldiers. Of all the Gaza border crossings, Kerem Shalom is equipped to handle the most humanitarian aid trucks daily. The crossing has been closed since the attack.
Hamas’s control of the border crossing allowed it to hijack humanitarian aid deliveries from Egypt. In recent days, residents of certain Rafah neighbourhoods received phone calls, SMS messages, air-dropped flyers, and media broadcasts instructing them to evacuate to expanded humanitarian zones in Khan Yunis and the coastal area of Al-Mawasi.
The flyers included maps showing the affected zones, and aid organisations were updated on the evacuation plans. Also receiving messages to evacuate were displaced Palestinians camping in a strip of land along the Gaza-Egypt border known as the Philadelphi corridor. This buffer zone was created to prevent weapons smuggling after Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2006. But in 2007, Hamas violently seized control of Gaza from the PA.
At least 1,200 people were killed and 240 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Around 30 of the remaining 133 hostages are believed dead.