As Israel’s brutal offensive on Gaza nears its tenth month causing an ever-worsening humanitarian catastrophe and creating fears of a wider regional war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was receiving praise during his trip to the United States, which has provided crucial military and political support for the war.
The premier – who could soon face arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged war crimes in Gaza – made his first foreign trip since the start of the war this week where he spoke to Congress, amid protests inside and outside the US Capitol.
Netanyahu has vowed to continue his war until Hamas is eliminated, sought guarantees from the Biden administration that US support will continue despite tensions over Israeli conduct in the Gaza Strip and the postponement of American arms shipments.
Repeated lies
Netanyahu presented Congress with a slew of claims for which he failed to provide evidence, again.
Since the beginning of the war on October 7, sparked by Hamas' surprise attack in southern Israel, Netanyahu and the Israeli defence establishment have tried to win global backing and sympathy by repeating claims that have been comprehensively debunked.
They said that Hamas beheaded babies and placed them in ovens in an Israeli kibbutz during the group’s Oct. 7 incursion, a claim that was initially reiterated by US President Joe Biden, who later retracted. There was no proof this happened, but Netanyahu repeated the claims during his speech in Congress.
The use of civilian infrastructure by Hamas has also been a prominent claim repeatedly used by Israel to justify striking schools and hospitals, decimating Gaza’s healthcare system and UN-run schools used as shelters. This claim has also never been proven.
One moment which shocked viewers the most on Wednesday was when Netanyahu suggested that Israel had not killed civilians in southern Gaza.
"I asked the commander there, how many terrorists do you take out in Rafah? He gave me an exact number, 1,203," , referencing a chat he had with an Israeli commander in the Gaza Strip’s southernmost city.
"I asked him, how many civilians were killed? He said, prime minister, practically none. With the exception of a single incident where shrapnel from a bomb hit a Hamas weapons depot, and unintentionally killed two dozen people," he continued.
"The answer is, practically none. You want to know why? Because Israel got the civilians out of harm why, something the people said we could never do, but we did!"
The statement was met with a round of applause from the Congress audience who chose to attend.
The prime minister’s claims that the overwhelming majority of casualties were militants and not civilians was described as one of "the most disgraceful" moments by social media users.
More than 39,000 people in the enclave have perished due to Israel’s bombardment and suffocating siege which has pushed the coastal territory to the brink of famine, according to Gaza health authorities, with over 90,000 injured. Another estimate by The Lancet medical journal says the death toll could exceed 180,000.
Most of the enclave’s population of some 2 million people have been displaced countless times.
"Netanyahu's speech to Congress was one of the most horrifying things I've ever seen. A series of lies and an endless stream of genocidal propaganda, and the vast majority of these politicians just stood up and clapped at every single line. Genocidal freaks, all of them," one X user wrote.
CNN’s Jeremy Diamond described the claim regarding civilian casualties as "laughable."
The American news network’s Jerusalem correspondent , including those on aid. The journalist defended the ICC which, as part of its war crimes case against Israeli officials, says Israel is hampering humanitarian assistance from reaching the enclave.
Netanyahu attempted to push back against the ICC accusations in his speech and alleged that Israel was doing its utmost to protect civilians, claiming that 40,000 aid trucks had entered Gaza since the start of the war, totalling about half a million tons of food.
"He [Netanyahu] talks about big numbers of aid getting in but there is very, very clear evidence – you talk to any humanitarian organisation that works on the ground in Gaza, the United Nations, and even when you look at Israel the way they turned on and back off the faucet of aid to Gaza, there is clear evidence that Israel has not always allowed enough aid in, that they have not done enough to deconflict militarily to provide safe routes for that aid to get in," said Diamond.
Humanitarian groups have blasted Israel for not helping to facilitate the entry of desperately needed aid into Gaza. Aid deliveries have piled up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing since Israel’s takeover of the crossing on the Gaza side.
Boycott and protest
About half of the Democrats in the US House of Representatives boycotted Netanyahu’s speech. Palestinian-American lawmaker Rashida Tlaib, who did attend, "War Criminal" and "Guilty of Genocide."
As she stood up to display the sign, Netanyahu received a standing ovation from Tlaib’s peers.
The Democrats’ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that Congress had to fill up vacant seats due to the number of representatives who chose to boycott.
"Netanyahu has lost so many people that he is addressing just a fraction of Congress," the New York representative wrote on X.
"When this happens, they fill the seats with non-members, like what they do at award ceremonies, in order to project the appearance of full attendance and support."
Among those who boycotted was former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi who blasted Netanyahu on X. But her concerns focused more on the Israeli leader’s objections to a ceasefire deal with Hamas rather than Israel’s conduct in Gaza.
"Benjamin Netanyahu’s presentation in the House Chamber today was by far the worst presentation of any foreign dignitary invited and honoured with the privilege of addressing the Congress of the United States," the Democratic California representative wrote on X.
"Many of us who love Israel spent time today listening to Israeli citizens whose families have suffered in the wake of the October 7th Hamas terror attack and kidnappings," she continued, hoping that Netanyahu would spend his time reaching a ceasefire deal.
Netanyahu failed to mention the negotiations with Hamas being mediated by the US, Qatar and Egypt. The families of remaining hostages in Gaza have made desperate calls for a deal that would see captives freed from Gaza, blaming Netanyahu and his government of obstructing an agreement.
Israel says around 120 captives remain in Gaza out of some 250 taken by Hamas and other Palestinian gunmen on Oct. 7. Palestinian factions are seeking to swap hostages for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention.
US Senator Bernie Sanders slammed Netanyahu as a war criminal and a liar.
"Netanyahu is not only a war criminal. He is a liar. All humanitarian organisations agree: Tens of thousands of children face starvation because his extremist government continues to block aid. Israelis want him out of office. So he came to Congress to campaign," the Vermont Senator wrote on X.
Vice President and current Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris also did not attend the Wednesday speech due to other commitments, neither did she greet Netanyahu at the tarmac when his plane landed.
She is set to meet him on Thursday. Biden and Netanyahu are also scheduled to meet separately Thursday night.
Outside on the streets of Washington DC, pro-Palestinian protesters lambasted Netanyahu’s visit, and some arrests were made. Hundreds were detained on Tuesday when Jewish Voice for Peace activists demonstrated inside the Congress building.
Addressing the protesters, Netanyahu said: "You have officially become Iran's useful idiots."
A big portion of his speech focused on Iran and Iranian-backed groups in the Middle East currently fighting Israel in parallel to the war on Gaza, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.
International observers are worried a miscalculation could lead to a wider, regional conflagration, especially with the heavily armed Hezbollah group.