The rockets that Islamic Jihad have fired into Israel constituted war crimes, the prime minister said, sparking a dispute with MKs from the Joint List. “The central principle is simple: On one side, there are fighters, and on the other side, civilians,” he said. “You can cross this line accidentally, but not intentionally. Every army, [even] among the most moral armies in the world, accidentally hits innocent people, but that is not a war crime. A war crime is what the terrorists in Gaza do when they shoot at us… They intentionally aim at civilians, at residential neighborhoods. When they shoot a residential neighborhood in Ashkelon, what do they think, that the army is there? It’s nonsense.”Netanyahu said that he repeatedly denied requests from the defense establishment to attack, because he wanted to minimize harm to people who are not involved in attacking Israel.“That is completely different from what those terrorists do – and there are MKs here who are defending them,” he stated. MK Ahmed Tibi of the Joint List was removed from the plenum for repeatedly interrupting Netanyahu. As he was escorted out, he shouted: “Because of you, my family is threatened. Liar!”Joint List MK Aida Touma-Sliman wrote on Twitter: “Netanyahu stood in the Knesset and said that the IDF doesn’t commit war crimes and does not strike civilians. What about the wife of the senior Islamic Jihad commander who was killed while she was sleeping in bed with him? What about the thousands of civilians killed in our repeated rounds of war with Gaza? They’re not civilians?”Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, a former IDF chief of staff, said he unequivocally supports Israel’s actions in Gaza.“Looking broadly at the Gaza Strip, our goal must be to restore deterrence – the outcome of this operation must serve as a very strong deterrent,” Gantz said. “When we have to fight, we will fight and when have to lead efforts toward neighborly relationships, we will do that also. Make no mistake – on the other side there are terrorists, not Mother Theresas. They are deliberately firing rockets onto populated areas.”PM Netanyahu: “We have just finished a security consultation here at IDF Southern Command with the Defense Minister, the Chief-of-Staff, GOC intelligence and the NSA Director. We agreed on the future steps. pic.twitter.com/iOX2W5wHBi
— PM of Israel (@IsraeliPM) November 13, 2019