Thread by @LahavHarkov

Netanyahu is giving his first press conference to the foreign press in a year after his plan for Israel to take control of Gaza City has proven unpopular with the Israeli Right and Left.

Netanyah: Hamas still has 1000s of terrorists in Gaza...Hamas refusing to lay down its arms, Israel has no choice but to finish the job...Contrary to false claims, this is the best way to end the war and to end it speedily.

Netanyahu says before going into the remaining areas of Gaza, Israel "will do so 1st instructing the civilian population to leave combat areas to safe zones. They
will be given ample food, water and medical care as we did before."

Netanyahu: Our policy throughout the war has been to prevent a humanitarian crisis while Hamas' policy is to create it...We let in 2 million tons of aid, i know no other army that has enabled aid to go to enemy territory...If we had starvation policy no one would have survived after 2 years of war.

Netanyahu: In last few months, Hamas violently looted aid trucks meant to get to pal civilians deliberately created this shortage of supply...There are tons of humanitarian aid rotting on the gaza border...

Now, we are going to go around this obstacle by doing 3 things
1 designating safe corridors for human aid distribution
2 increasing no safe distribution points managed by th GHF
3 airdrops done by the IAF inviting others to join us

The result is a humanitarian surge coordinated by Trump and his team.

Netanyahu: We are preventing hunger but not preventing global campaign of lies we have all witnessed. In Gaza 2 million people are now getting access to humanitarian aid...The only ones being deliberately starved in gaza are our hostages

Netanyahu shows a photo of Evyatar David and compares it to the thicker arm of his captor. Netanyahu shows a slide of photos of emaciated children from the international media, with the word "fake" on each of them, goes through the various diseases the children had that weren't originally reported.

Netanyahu compares the claims to blood libels: "We were said to be spreading vermin in Christian society, said to be poinsioning the wells, said to slaughter Christian children for blood, followed by massive violence pogroms displacement followed by the worst of all, the Holocaust...The international press is falling for Hamas propaganda hook, line and sinker."

Another slide:

In response to reporters' questions, Netanyahu argues that the cabinet's decision is better for the hostages.

"The option of just doing a war of attrition from a defensive position has not proved itself. It wont bring them out...[It will lead to a] protracted conflict that won't bring war to an end. The move that I'm talking about has the possibility of bringing them out...How to bring remaining hostages alive as we close in on Hamas - there are various creative ways that this can be done."

"I dont want to prolong the war, I want to end the war and i think the other option would have prolonged the war...Prolonging the war means that many of them could have been starved to death."