Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed “nobody will stop us” from destroying Hamas as the war between Israel and the militant group reached its 100th day.
Netanyahu suggested that Israel would not comply with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where Israel is accused of genocide and could be ordered to halt its offensive.
Netanyahu said the genocide claims, brought by South Africa on Thursday, were a “hypocritical onslaught,” adding that it was “at the behest of those who came to perpetrate another Holocaust against the Jews”
This “is a moral low point in the history of nations,” Netanyahu said.
The prime minister also claimed several antisemitic items were found in Hamas tunnels in Gaza, including copies of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf.” In addition, Netanyahu said, “in a home in Gaza, they found a child’s tablet with a picture of Hitler as the screensaver.”
Netanyahu stated that while antisemitism is the same, the Jewish people are different and will fight “until the end.”
‘We need to close it’: Also during the press briefing, Netanyahu stressed that Israel can’t finish the war until they close the Philadelphi Corridor, a 14km strip of land that serves as the border between Egypt and Gaza. Such a move would give Israel complete control over Gaza.
Allowing the border with Egypt to remain out of Israel’s reach would put their war gains in jeopardy, Netanyahu said.
“We’ll destroy Hamas, we’ll demilitarize Gaza, and military equipment and other deadly weapons will continue to enter this southern opening, so of course we need to close it,” Netanyahu explained.
Egyptian foreign ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid, meanwhile, said Egypt remains in full control of its borders in an interview with Egyptian television channel Sada Al-Balad on Saturday.
“Egypt fully controls its borders and controls it completely, and these issues are subject to legal and security agreements between the countries involved, so any talk on this matter is generally subject to scrutiny and is responded to with declared positions,” Abu Zeid said.
