Said Amouri
06 June 2024•Update: 06 June 2024
JERUSALEM
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that his country is engaged in a war on multiple fronts amid international pressure.
Netanyahu said Israel is fighting in the south in the Gaza Strip, in the north meaning southern Lebanon and in Judea and Samaria, or the West Bank, according to Israel’s public broadcaster KAN.
“Israel is fighting a multi-front war while difficult international pressures being exerted on us,” he said after a security assessment at the Army's Central Command headquarters in Jerusalem, according to The Times of Israel newspaper.
“I can guarantee one thing, whatever happened before will not happen again,” he said about the Oct. 7 attacks. “We will change this reality.”
US President Joe Biden said last week that Israel presented a three-phase deal that would end hostilities in Gaza and secure the release of hostages held in the coastal enclave. The plan includes a cease-fire, a hostage-prisoner exchange and the reconstruction of Gaza.
Netanyahu said Monday, however, that he was “not ready to stop" the onslaught against Gaza and called Biden's remarks “inaccurate” concerning the cease-fire proposal.
Washington asked Tel Aviv on Tuesday to avoid escalating tensions with Hezbollah until the prisoner exchange deal with Hamas is completed, as reported by KAN, citing an unnamed American official.
Netanyahu has faced extensive international criticism for his insistence on continuing the war in Gaza.
On May 20, the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced efforts to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his defense cheif Yoav Gallant on charges of committing “war crimes” in the Gaza Strip.
Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since a Hamas attack on Oct. 7 despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire
Some 36,600 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and more than 83,000 others injured, according to local health authorities
Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
*Writing by Mohammad Sio
