The U.S. Congress repeatedly stood in applause Wednesday as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed American lawmakers, at times misleading, in other instances outright lying to the federal legislature.
While Netanyahu's presence drew massive protests outside the Capitol and Washington, in general, his fiery speech has been denounced by the Palestinian group Hamas.
The Israeli Prime Minister told the Congress that Israel's genocidal war on Gaza has one of the lowest ratios of combatants to non-combatant casualties in the history of urban warfare."
The claim is far from the truth in Gaza, where the confirmed Palestinian death toll sits at nearly 40,000, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
It has repeatedly publicized lists of the dead, including their Israeli-issued identification numbers, and whose data from past conflicts the U.N. has attested as reliable.
The majority of the dead have been women and children and not every man killed has been a combatant.
Israel has largely shrugged off civilian casualties, blaming Hamas as the number has risen dramatically over the past nine months.
The true death toll is likely far higher than the official numbers from the ministry, a fact even the Biden administration has acknowledged.
Many of the dead likely remain buried under Gaza's sprawling rubble fields or were summarily buried at makeshift sites by Israeli forces.
Israel, Netanyahu claimed, has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history, and "beyond what international law requires."
His claim is at stark odds with repeated appeals for Israel to do more to mitigate civilian harm, including from the Biden administration which has for months said that more must be done to not only avoid additional deaths but to improve the humanitarian situation throughout Gaza. The U.N. has also strongly criticized the conditions at what Israel considers "safe zones."
James Elder, a UNICEF spokesperson, said on July 16 that "under international law, the place where you evacuate people to must have sufficient resources for survival – medical facilities, food, and water."
"That is, these so-called safe zones are safe not just when they are free from bombardment, but when these conditions – food, water, medicine, protection – are also met."
"However, these safe zones are tiny patches of barren land, or street corners, or half-built buildings, with no water, no facilities, no shelters from the cold and the rain. And now, in yet another deadly twist for families in Gaza, those forced into the al-Mawasi "safe zone" are not only deprived of such lifesaving services but have been bombed three times in the past six weeks!" Elder said.
His comments came after 90 people were killed during a series of strikes on the al-Mawasi safe zone near Rafah.
"If there are Palestinians in Gaza who aren't getting enough food, it's not because Israel is blocking it, it's because Hamas is stealing it," Netanyahu also said in his speech.
The U.N. and international relief groups, however, have repeatedly sounded the alarm at Israeli restrictions on the entry of humanitarian assistance, denials on forward movement once the convoys enter Gaza, and Israel's repeated attacks on convoys as they attempt to make badly-needed deliveries.
A series of Israeli airstrikes on a World Central Kitchen aid convoy on April 1 killed seven workers and led to major aid groups pausing their operations. In June, the World Food Programme paused its operations after two warehouses came under rocket attack during an Israeli hostage rescue operation that killed nearly 300 Palestinians.
The agency had been carrying out delivery operations from a temporary pier the U.S. built on the Gaza coastline to work around Israel's restrictions.
The lack of sufficient deliveries has led to extreme scarcity of food and clean water throughout Gaza.
A panel of 10 independent U.N. rapporteurs said on June 9 that there is "no doubt" famine now exists across all of Gaza.
"We declare that Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza."
"We call upon the international community to prioritize the delivery of humanitarian aid by land by any means necessary, end Israel’s siege, and establish a ceasefire," they said.
Israel's Netanyahu, who is accused of genocide in Gaza, also claimed that civilian casualties stemming from Israeli operations in the southern Gaza city of Rafah were "practically none."
The claim is not only far-fetched, it is an outright lie. There have been multiple Israeli strikes in Rafah that have resulted in civilian casualties, including one that set fire to a tent camp housing displaced Palestinians in May, killing at least 46 people.
Netanyahu himself said that the strike was a "tragic mishap." Hundreds of others were treated for injuries they sustained during the attack, including gruesome burns.
U.N. experts were outraged by the strike.
Earlier in February, roughly four Israeli airstrikes killed at least 95 civilians. About half of those victims were children.
Amnesty International called the attack "unlawful," and said it adds to evidence that "Israeli forces continue to flout international humanitarian law, obliterating entire families with total impunity."
