Benjamin Netanyahu blasts Australia's Gaza protests
The Israeli Prime Minister overnight held a press conference in English to set the record straight, as he sees it, after Western allies, including Australia, condemned his plan to occupy all of Gaza.
An Australian journalist asked Mr Netanyahu if his Western counterparts, who consistently support the Israel's right to defend itself, 'are now struggling to stomach what they're seeing you and your military doing in Gaza'.
'First of all, those who say that Israel has a right to defend itself are also saying, 'but don't exercise that right,'' Mr Netanyahu told reporters.
'When we do what any country would do, faced with this genocidal terrorist organisation that has performed the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust.'
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas' October 7 attacks on Israel in 2023.
Militants killed more than 1200 in the shock assault, slaughtering entire families.
Much of the violence was celebrated by perpetrators and sympathisers online.
Israel's furious response has decimated Hamas, but also killed tens of thousands in the process.
Most of the dead are civilians, including women, children and aid workers.
Me Netanyahu said his country was 'actually applying force judiciously, and they know it'.
'They know what they would do if right next to Melbourne, or right next to Sydney, you had this horrific attack,' he said.
'I think you would do at least what we're doing … maybe not as efficiently and as precisely as we're doing it.'
He went on to say Israelis were 'against the Palestinian state for the simple reason that they know it won't bring peace'.
'It'll bring war,' Mr Netanyahu said, directly countering rhetoric put forward by the Albanese government.
'To have European countries and Australia march into that … rabbit hole just like that, fall right into it and buy, this canard is disappointing, and I think it's actually shameful.
'But it's not going to … change our position.
'Again, we will not commit national suicide to get to get a good op-ed for two minutes. We won't do that.'
More to come.
Originally published as Netanyahu blasts Australia's Gaza protests as 'shameful'
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