Netanyahu says 'enough' remaining Israeli hostages alive to warrant Gaza war

The Star

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview aired on Sunday (Feb 11) that "enough" of the 132 remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza are alive to justify Israel's ongoing war in the region.  He also said that one Palestinian civilian has been killed for every Hamas fighter killed in Gaza.  Health authorities in Gaza estimated that about 28,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the region since the conflict began in October.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00 You've directed the Israeli defense forces to evacuate Rafah in advance of this ground

00:05 invasion.

00:06 Where are those people supposed to go?

00:08 This is 1.4 million people, many of whom have fled northern Gaza.

00:12 I mean, they're living in tents.

00:14 Where are these people supposed to go?

00:16 Well, Rafah is a very small percentage of Gaza.

00:20 I think it's about 10 percent or 15 percent.

00:22 I mean, the estimates—

00:23 The area north of Gaza that has already been cleared.

00:25 Well, there's an estimated 1.4 million people in that area right now.

00:30 And as the German foreign minister said, they can't just disappear.

00:35 Where are they supposed to go?

00:36 No, well, the areas that we've cleared north of Rafah are plenty of areas there.

00:41 But we are working out a detailed plan to do so.

00:44 And that's what we've done up to now.

00:46 We're not cavalier about this.

00:48 This is part of our war effort to get civilians out of harm's way.

00:51 It's part of Hamas's effort to keep them in harm's way.

00:54 But we've so far succeeded, and we're going to succeed again.

00:57 Those who say that under no circumstances should we enter Rafah are basically saying,

01:01 "Lose the war.

01:02 Keep Hamas there."

01:03 How many of the 132 hostages do you think are still alive?

01:09 I think enough to warrant the kind of efforts that we're doing.

01:14 We're going to try to do our best to get all those who are alive back, and frankly,

01:18 also the bodies of the dead.

01:20 But I won't go into that right now.

01:22 I'm not sure that anybody can put themselves in the position of the families.

01:26 We're going to provide-

01:27 Wait a minute.

01:28 You're saying it's only been one civilian that's been killed for one Hamas terrorist

01:32 in Gaza?

01:33 Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying.

01:36 Yes.

01:37 We've killed and wounded over 20,000 Hamas terrorists.

01:41 Out of that, about 12,000 fighters.

01:46 And we're doing everything we can to minimize civilian casualties and continue to do so.

01:50 But one thing we're not going to do is we're not going to let Hamas emerge victorious.

01:55 What's your response to President Biden saying the response in Gaza has been over the top?

02:00 I appreciate President Biden's support for Israel since the beginning of the war.

02:04 I don't know exactly what he meant by that.

02:07 But put yourself in Israel's shoes.

02:09 We were attacked, unprovoked attack, murderous attack on October 7th, the worst attack on

02:14 Jewish people since the Holocaust.

02:16 And let me tell you, I think we've responded in a way that goes after the terrorists and

02:21 tries to minimize the civilian population in which the terrorists embed themselves and

02:26 use them as human shield.

02:31 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Category

Transcript

Recommended