Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave a rare press conference to foreign media on Sunday at which he laid out Israel’s plans for the continuation of its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and sought to dispel the “global campaign of lies” about Israel’s conduct, as criticism continues to mount after nearly two years of conflict.

Days after his cabinet approved a new major offensive in Gaza City to root out Hamas forces there, the premier denied that Israel intends to occupy Gaza, said his intention was to swiftly end the war rather than prolong it. He described how a future “civilian administration” would be established in the Strip to govern Palestinians in a manner that does not threaten Israel.

As security forces and hostages’ families decry the Gaza City plan as potentially endangering the hostages’ lives, Netanyahu argued that an Israeli takeover of Gaza would in fact enable the return of the living hostages.

The prime minister also lashed out at foreign media for buying into Gaza starvation claims, saying the allegations were largely a “fake” Hamas campaign that the world had fallen for “hook, line and sinker.” He claimed the belief by some world leaders that Palestinian statehood would solve the region’s problems was “absurd,” insisting that “Palestinians are not about creating a state; they’re about destroying a state.”

The Israeli leader also said that in imposing a partial arms embargo on Israel, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had “buckled” under pressure from foreign and domestic groups opposing Israel.

Opening the press conference at his Jerusalem office with a prepared statement, Netanyahu said he had convened it “to puncture the lies and tell the truth.”

“Our goal is not to occupy Gaza. Our goal is to free Gaza, free it from Hamas terrorists,” Netanyahu said. “The war can end tomorrow if Hamas lays down its arms and releases all the remaining hostages.”

Describing his five-point postwar vision for the Strip, Netanyahu said: “Gaza will be demilitarized; Israel will have overriding security responsibility; a security zone will be established on Gaza’s border with Israel to prevent future terrorist incursions; a civilian administration will be established in Gaza that will seek to live in peace with Israel.”

The Palestinian Authority is not an acceptable option, Netanyahu added, accusing it of promoting terrorist activity against Israel.

“That’s our plan. Given Hamas’s refusal to lay down its arms, Israel has no choice but to finish the job and complete the defeat of Hamas,” he said.

Netanyahu said the IDF had been instructed “to dismantle the two remaining Hamas strongholds in Gaza City and the central camps.” Israel will begin the plan “by first enabling the civilian population to safely leave the combat areas to designated safe zones. In these safe zones, they’ll be given ample food, water, and medical care,” he said.

Addressing humanitarian concerns, Netanyahu said, “Our policy throughout the war has been to prevent a humanitarian crisis, while Hamas’s policy has been to create it.”

Turning to allegations that the IDF enforced a starvation policy in Gaza, Netanyahu insisted that Israel allowed sufficient aid in throughout the war, while Hamas has disrupted aid flow and the United Nations has failed to properly distribute it.

Since the beginning of the war, Israel has let in “close to 2 million tons of aid,” he said. “If we had a starvation policy, no one in Gaza would have survived after two years of war. But our policy has been the exact opposite.”

He said Hamas has “violently looted the aid trucks” and deliberately created shortages. Because the UN was unwilling to deliver all of it, he said, tons and tons of humanitarian aid sat rotting on the Gaza side of the border. Now Israel was designating safe corridors for aid distribution, boosting safe distribution points managed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and arranging air drops by Israel and others.

Netanyahu blamed Hamas and the international media for promoting false allegations of Israeli-imposed starvation in Gaza — describing a “global campaign of lies.”

While 2 million people in Gaza are now getting access to humanitarian aid, “the only ones who are being deliberately starved in Gaza are our hostages,” he said.

He showed a still of the emaciated Israeli hostage Evyatar David, as seen in a recent Hamas propaganda video. “Look at his hand, at his arm. He is being deliberately starved by these Hamas monsters,” said Netanyahu, pointing also to the seemingly healthy arm in the shot of one of the Hamas captors who, he claimed, was clearly “eating well.”

He highlighted images of three allegedly malnourished Gaza children that have gone  viral and have been featured in media throughout the world, saying these were “fake” photos of children who all had preexisting health conditions.

First, he referred to 5-year-old Osama al-Rakab, who suffers from a serious “genetic disease” and who underwent treatment in Italy “because Israel got him out.” Second, he pointed to Abdul Qader al-Fayoumi, who reportedly died of starvation in Gaza, saying the teen suffered from “a genetic neurological disorder,” and noted that he was treated in Israel in 2018, but that his disease defies most treatments.

Finally, he turned to what he called the “most celebrated” case — a New York Times front-page photograph showing Muhammad Zakaria Ayoub al-Mutawaq and his mother. He said Muhammad suffers from cerebral palsy, and noted that “his mother is well fed and his brother is healthy.”

“I’m looking right now into the possibility of a governmental suit against the New York Times because this is outrageous,” Netanyahu said, noting that the New York Times later issued a correction regarding the story, but saying it had “buried” it.

While the photos of al-Mutawaq failed to mention the serious illness he suffers from, senior Israeli doctors have said his severely emaciated state is not the result of his preexisting condition alone, and that it is likely due to an inability to access proper nutritional supplements.

While the premier denied that Israel is deliberately starving Gazan civilians, he conceded that the people of the Strip have experienced “deprivation” and said the new surge of aid was meant to address this.

“I don’t know of a country that texts millions of messages to civilians to get out of harm’s way, giving up the element of surprise, or calling them individually on the cellphones,” he went on. “Yet Israel is accused of genocide. It’s absurd.”

Addressing near-daily reports of civilian casualties from Israeli fire near aid sites, Netanyahu alleged that “a lot of the firing was done by Hamas, seeking to [prompt a] response by our forces.” And “very often,” IDF forces did not respond, he claimed: “They stood back, they held their fire, even though their own lives were on the line.”

The United Nations has said more than 1,300 people have been killed trying to obtain aid supplies in the enclave since the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began operating in May, most of them shot by Israeli forces operating near GHF sites.

Netanyahu claimed, without elaborating, that the military plan to take over Gaza City could aid efforts to retrieve the remaining living and dead hostages in the Strip — most of whom are believed to be held in the central Strip area — through “various” and “creative” methods.

Israel’s top security officials, including IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, Mossad chief David Barnea, and National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi are all said to believe that conquering Gaza City will endanger the hostages.

Netanyahu insisted that he does “not want to prolong the war,” saying, “I want to end the war. I think the other suggestions [for future actions in Gaza] would have prolonged it.”

Turning to a post-war Gaza, Netanyahu said Israel has identified “several candidates” for a “transitional authority” to govern Gaza after the war, stressing that Hamas disarmament would come first in any postwar plan and that Israel does not seek to remain in the Strip.

Multiple Arab countries agree with Israel on the requirement for Hamas disarmament, he claimed.

“There are several candidates that we’re talking about, several constructs,” he continued. But “no one’s going to go in there unless we finish Hamas.”

He emphasized that “we don’t want to stay in Gaza, that’s not our purpose,” adding that he makes this clear even “to those who disagree with me” — likely referring to far-right members of his coalition who openly call for permanent occupation of Gaza.

Turning to international criticism of Israel, Netanyahu said that German Chancellor Merz has “been a good friend of Israel, but I think he’s buckled under the pressure of false TV reports, the internal pressure from various groups.”

Referring to world leaders in general, he said, “Maybe some choose to forget October 7. We will not forget what happened, and we will do whatever it takes to defend our country and defend our people, defend our future. We will win the war, with or without the support of others.”

Netanyahu asserted that in fact, many leaders, “especially European leaders,” have told him: “Look, we know you’re right, but we can’t stand in the face of the public opinion in our country…They tell me that over and over again.”

“And I say, that is your problem. It is not our problem,” he said.

Asked about the recent wave of Israel’s Western allies committing to recognize a Palestinian state and his description of such action as “rewarding terror,” the premier said: “Palestinians are not about creating a state, they’re about destroying a state.”

“The prevailing assumption… [is] that the problem that we have with the Palestinians is the absence of a Palestinian state. And [that] if they were given a Palestinian state, they would stop the efforts to destroy the Jewish state,” he said. “But the Palestinians were offered a state many times, including in the partition resolution, and they turned it down,” he said. “They were offered statehood by my predecessors, with lavish, lavish concessions. They turned it down.”

“It defies imagination or understanding how intelligent people around the world, including seasoned diplomats, government leaders, and respected journalists, fall for this absurdity,” he stated.

Hamas had a de facto state in Gaza, he added, which it used “to launch a war of terror against Israel,” and will do so again if it is able. As for the Palestinian Authority, he went on, it seeks first to reduce Israel to “indefensible boundaries” via international organs “and then deliver the blow. Because Israel is too strong in its present configuration.”

“The real reason that this conflict persists is not because of the absence of a Palestinian state, but the persistent Palestinian refusal to recognize the Jewish state in any boundary,” he charged.

The Palestinians should have “all the powers to govern themselves in the places where they live and none of the powers to threaten Israel,” he said. “If they want to live here, next to us, they have to stop seeking our destruction.”

“That’s something that today, the Israeli public forcefully opposes,” he noted. Most of the Jewish public and the vast majority of MKs oppose a Palestinian state “for the simple reason that they know it won’t bring peace.

“To have European countries and Australia march into that rabbit hole… and buy this canard, it is disappointing. And I think it’s actually shameful.” But, he vowed, “it’s not going to change our position.