IDF Says Gaza Famine Is Hamas Propaganda

In an interview with US TV channel Newsmax, Benjamin Netanyahu said he could bomb Gaza “like the Allies bombed Dresden” in World War II.

The Israeli leader was asked why the Israeli army will not “wipe Hamas and the Gaza Strip” off the map, to which he replied: “We can bomb them like the Allies [in World War II] bombed Dresden, we could starve them to death if we followed the smears, these false lies that are uttered against Israel, and no one would be alive,” in quotes published by Al Jazeera.

“But they are not, because we actually follow a simple rule: we try to displace the population, separate the population and go after only the terrorists,” Netanyahu added.

The Occupy for Gaza movement sends about 2,000 euros a month to help 20 Palestinian families with funds they collect during actions, such as Thursday's vigil in Lisbon, the organization said.

"We publicize their lives, their struggle for survival, and they would have no other way to survive and feed themselves if it weren't for the funds we managed to raise during the vigils," Patrícia Batista, from the Occupy for Gaza movement, told Lusa during a vigil in honor of Qatari journalist AlJazeera's Anasal-Sharif, who was killed on Sunday in an Israeli bombing in Gaza.

Around fifty people attended the vigil, which took place in Largo do Carmo, in Lisbon.

The Israeli army said today that it had intercepted a missile from Yemen, from where the Houthi rebels regularly attack Israel, arguing that they are doing so in solidarity with the people of the Gaza Strip.

“A short while ago, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted by Israeli air forces,” the army announced in a statement.

The launch has not yet been claimed, but Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels regularly launch missile and drone attacks on Israel, claiming to be acting in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

In an open letter released last Wednesday , more than 100 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) denounce the ban on entering the Gaza Strip and accuse Israel of using the blockade on humanitarian aid as a weapon.

The statement said that NGOs that "have been working in Gaza for decades and have the trust of the communities" are not allowed to enter the Palestinian enclave, which leaves "hospitals without essential goods, children, people with disabilities and the elderly dying of hunger and preventable diseases, and the workers who deliver humanitarian aid working in hunger."

According to the NGOs, the blockade is related to the registration rules that were imposed in March, which are based on “vague and political criteria, such as the alleged delegitimization of the State of Israel.”

The rules include filling out forms requesting details of private donors, a full list of Palestinian staff, and sensitive information about team members. "The NGOs have made it clear that sharing this data is against the law (including relevant data protection laws), unsafe, and incompatible with humanitarian principles. In the deadliest context for humanitarian aid workers around the world, where 98% of the dead are Palestinian, the NGOs have no guarantee that handing over this information will not put the teams at risk," the letter states.

In a statement released by the Haaretz newspaper , the IDF claims that Hamas is promoting a “hunger campaign,” saying the Palestinian group has been “amplifying the narrative” of deaths from malnutrition in a “propaganda” strategy.

"A Department of Defense investigation exposes the flaws and provides evidence that Hamas is waging a coordinated campaign as part of a larger effort to smear Israel and achieve political gain," the statement said, adding that malnutrition deaths spiked "inexplicably" in July, which "coincided with ceasefire negotiations" between Israel and Hamas.

Good morning.

In this liveblog, we'll continue to follow developments in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, a day after the Israeli finance minister announced a plan to "bury the idea of a Palestinian state." You can read what happened last Wednesday at this link.

Netanyahu says a “political solution” for Gaza is synonymous with “defeat and surrender” for Israel