IDF will capture all of Gaza, Netanyahu vows, defending resumption of aid transfers

Israeli premier says American lawmakers warned that Israel would lose US support if famine breaks out in Gaza, says entry of aid to Gaza is crucial to Israel’s war effort.

By World Israel News Staff

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his decision to permit the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip on Monday morning, claiming that the delivery of aid is crucial to Israel’s war effort against Hamas.

Twenty trucks carrying food, medical supplies, and other goods lined up outside the Gaza Strip, the United Nations said, waiting for final permission to enter the war-torn coastal enclave after Netanyahu unilaterally ordered the resumption of aid transfers to the Gaza Strip on Sunday night.

The decision sparked a backlash from government ministers, some of whom had demanded a vote by the Security Cabinet before aid was permitted into Gaza.

“Humanitarian aid? First they should return the hostages,” said Minister for the Development of the Periphery, the Negev, and the Galilee Yitzhak Wasserlauf (Otzma Yehudit).

“We’re not going to ventilate Hamas with one hand while fighting it with the other. If you bring in aid while at the same time sending soldiers to fight Hamas — you’re ventilating Hamas with one hand and fighting it with the other. We need to think carefully about the next steps. This is a pressure lever – it must be used wisely.”

Netanyahu pushed back on the criticism, warning that Israel risks losing American support if it continues to bar aid into Gaza.

“We must not reach a state of starvation,” Netanyahu said in a video statement. “Both substantively and diplomatically; if that happens, no one will support us, and we won’t be able to complete the mission of victory.”

“A problem has arisen — we are approaching the red line, a point of losing control, and then everything could fall apart,” Netanyahu warned.

“Even our strongest friends in the world, passionate pro-Israel senators, came to me and said they would provide all support to help us win — weapons, backing to eliminate Hamas, defense at the UN Security Council. But they told me: ‘There’s one thing we can’t accept — images of mass starvation. That we can’t support.’ So, in order to win, we must solve this problem.”

Noting that the alternative mechanism for distributing aid was not yet prepared, the prime minister admitted that “Hamas may seize some of” the incoming goods.

Therefore, Netanyahu emphasized, Israel will restrict the amount of incoming aid to a “minimal, basic bridge so that there is no starvation.”

Israel will continue with its expanded ground offensive in Gaza, dubbed Gideon’s Chariots, Netanyahu said, adding that the decision to permit aid into the Strip did not change the Security Cabinet’s decision to take control over the entire coastal enclave.

“All of this is in parallel to massive military pressure and our large-scale incursion to take control of all of Gaza and deprive Hamas of any ability to loot humanitarian aid,” he said.

Netanyahu received backing from one of his right-wing coalition partners, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a security hawk who has called for the resettlement and annexation of Gaza.

“No aid will reach Hamas, period,” Smotrich told reporters.

“It will allow civilians to eat, our friends around the world to continue providing us with an international protection umbrella at the Security Council and The Hague, and us to keep fighting, God willing, until victory.

“For two and a half months, we did not allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, creating enormous pressure on Hamas — and rightly so. But pressure must be managed so it doesn’t explode on us,” he added.

“When the IDF resumed full efforts to conquer Gaza, moving civilians from areas with some remaining food, our great friends worldwide — those who support us and understand that we cannot stop just before complete victory and Hamas’s destruction — asked us to help them help us dispel starvation claims.

“We must do so. Without this, we cannot fight and win. This is not surrendering to pressure, but doing the right thing to stay focused on the main goal: destroying Hamas.”