In an interview with CBS News on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Hamas terror group has endangered civilians throughout the Gaza Strip and that the Israeli side has not been entirely successful in its efforts to limit civilian casualties.
The Israeli military has been conducting military operations in the Gaza Strip in the weeks after Hamas gunmen breached the Israel-Gaza barrier and carried out mass attacks killing more than 1,400 people on Oct. 7. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) initially responded to the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks with airstrikes throughout the Gaza Strip, but Israeli forces have since proceeded to ground operations in the confined strip of land.
During the interview, CBS host Norah O'Donnell noted one Israeli goal is to deradicalize Gaza, but questioned whether civilian casualties in the ongoing fighting would only further radicalize future generations of Gazans. Mr. Netanyahu initially responded that any civilian casualties are tragic, and said the Israeli side has tried to get the civilians out of harm’s way, but said Hamas has deliberately endangered those civilians by using hospitals as bases and by firing on people using Israeli-supported humanitarian corridors to leave Gaza.
“[Hamas] think they’re safe in the underground, this Messianic theological mad cult that is fighting below, and they’re saying that, you know, ‘Damn the Palestinians above,’” Mr. Netanyahu said. “We don’t say that. We do everything we can to have them leave.”
Mr. Netanyahu then said Israeli forces will continue to pursue their goals in Gaza, which he said include eliminating Hamas, freeing the hundreds of hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, and deradicalizing the Gaza Strip in the long term.
“We'll try to finish that job with minimal civilian casualties,” he continued. “That’s what we’re trying to do; minimal civilian casualties. But unfortunately, we’re not successful.”
The Israeli prime minister did not elaborate further as to why he didn’t believe his side was fully successful at minimizing civilian casualties, but he did not directly blame Israeli forces for any civilian deaths in the ongoing conflict.
Civilian Casualties Remain Difficult To Verify
In the course of the fighting, the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry has reported thousands of civilians have been killed. As of this week, the Ministry placed the civilian casualty assessment as high as 11,000, though their claims remain unconfirmed. It’s unclear if either the Israeli or U.S. governments are developing alternate casualty assessments from the conflict.Even if the exact number of deaths in Gaza could be immediately verified, there would still be challenges attributing blame for these deaths in an active war zone as well as determining who may have been legitimate non-combatants rather than Hamas fighters mixed in with the civilian populace.
On the other hand, the Israeli military has claimed credit for other military strikes that have led to disputes over whether they had actually hit Hamas combatants or civilians.
