Netanyahu: We will destroy Hamas, free our hostages, ensure Gaza won’t pose a threat to Israel again

I deeply appreciate the support we’ve received from President Biden and the administration, and I hope it will continue. But let me be clear: Israel will win this war, no matter what. To win this war, we must destroy the remaining Hamas battalions in Rafah. If not, Hamas will regroup, rearm, and reconquer Gaza, and then we’re back to square one. That’s an intolerable threat that we cannot accept. We will destroy Hamas, free our hostages, and ensure that Gaza doesn’t ever pose a threat to Israel again. We will finish the job in Rafah while enabling the civilian population to get out of harm’s way.

We’ve taken measures to minimize civilian casualties that no other army has taken in history. Just to ask Colonel John Spencer, a world expert on urban warfare in charge of urban warfare in West Point. We have taken measures to minimize civilian casualties that no other army has taken in history.

So to our friends in the international community, I say this: You cannot say you support Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself and then oppose Israel when it exercises that right. You cannot say you support Israel’s goal of destroying Hamas and then oppose Israel when it takes the actions necessary to achieve that goal. You cannot say that you oppose Hamas’s strategy of using civilians as human shields and then blame Israel for the civilian casualties that result from this Hamas cynical strategy. For Israel, every civilian death is a tragedy. For Hamas, every civilian death is a strategy.

So it is wrong and immoral to hold Israel to a standard for avoiding civilian casualties that no other country on earth is held to. My friends, I want to assure you: None of these pressures will stop us. Israel’s very future, its very survival, is at stake. We have no other option but total victory, and that victory is in and within reach.

I know that the overwhelming majority of the American people stand with us. I know that the overwhelming majority of Congress stands with us. I know that you stand with us. I know that you’re working tirelessly day in, day out to get us the tools so we can finish the job faster. And on behalf of the united people of Israel, I want to say thank you AIPAC. Thank you for everything you are doing for Israel. God bless Israel, God bless America. Thank you.