Netanyahu vowed to continue his genocidal war on Gaza during the speech and made no mention of efforts to reach a ceasefire and exchange deal
News Desk - The Cradle
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“Netanyahu should have been arrested as a war criminal and handed over the International Criminal Court instead of being given the opportunity to polish his image before the world,” read the opening remarks of the Hamas statement.
While the “terrorist occupation government leads a brutal war aimed at exterminating our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, violating all international laws, norms, and humanitarian treaties designed to protect civilians, in a manner unprecedented in modern history, the US Congress welcomes a speech from the war criminal,” Hamas added.
The Israeli premier “tried to play on emotional strings, reverse facts, and promote false narratives,” the statement went on to say, particularly relating to the events of 7 October.
“Netanyahu’s speech reflects the depth of his military, security, and international crisis, as he tried to publicly cover it up … promoting imaginary victories of liberating a number of captives, forgetting the horrific massacres he committed against civilians in Rafah and Nuseirat during their release.”
Netanyahu brought with him to his Congress speech Noa Argamani, who was held captive by the resistance in Gaza. In early June, Israel launched a rescue operation in the Nuseirat refugee camp to retrieve Argamani and three other captives, massacring nearly 300 Palestinians in the process.
“Netanyahu’s speech is full of lies and slander,” the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement said in a statement, adding that the prime minister proved “that his fragile entity derives its existence from wars.”
“Netanyahu’s speech clearly stated that he has no intention of ending his aggression against Gaza, nor stopping the war, and that his endeavor is to obtain an American mandate to expand it … Netanyahu’s talk about the future of Gaza confirms that he seeks to perpetuate his occupation, and that he is continuing his crimes and the war of genocide against our people, without deterrence or control,” the PIJ statement added.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) also responded to Netanyahu’s Congress speech, slamming and rejecting his call for indefinite Israeli security control over post-war Gaza.
“There is no ‘new Gaza’ as Netanyahu imagines; Gaza will always remain an integral part of Palestine, and it will remain a thorn in the enemy’s side … After the end of the war, Gaza will be free of occupation, and our people will not allow any puppet administration or government to assume responsibility for the Strip,” the PFLP said, rejecting US–Arab–Israeli initiatives for the “day after” the war.
The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) said in a statement that Netanyahu's reception at US Congress "once again confirms the falsehood of the American peace project known as the two-state solution. It also confirms that betting on this project, or following it, will only lead our people to the abyss and drive their national future away from dignified life on their land.”
The Popular Resistance Committees described the speech as a reflection of "the extent of the weakness, failure, and fragility that the criminal Zionist entity has reached in facing the Palestinian resistance and the support fronts that have revealed that this entity cannot confront the resistance and its axis without external support.”
Israel’s opposition slammed the prime minister’s speech at Congress.
“Netanyahu had the opportunity to announce that he accepts the deal and returns the kidnapped before they all die in the tunnels. He didn't do it,” former prime minister and leader of the Yesh Atid opposition party, Yair Lapid, said in response to Netanyahu’s address.
Netanyahu made no mention of US and Arab-mediated efforts to reach a ceasefire deal, which the premier has consistently obstructed. Instead, he vowed to continue the war until his stated goal of defeating the resistance and releasing captives by force was achieved.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry also commented on Netanyahu’s address.
As Palestinian human rights are being violated “in the most horrible way in front of the wide-open eyes of the world in Gaza and the West Bank, and Palestinian children are slaughtered every by the butcher of Tel Aviv, and in the face of all these crimes, the government and the US Congress welcome this executioner with claps and whistles,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said via X.
“Shame is a very small word for this scandal,” Kanaani added.
The premier received well over 50 standing ovations from US lawmakers during the speech.
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