Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, at the Kirya in Tel Aviv on Friday.
Participating in the meeting were the Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer; head of the National Security Council Tzachi Hanegbi; and Haim Regev, the Israeli Ambassador to the European Union.
The following is the prime minister’s statement:
“Thank you, Ursula. I appreciate the expression of support that you gave now and in recent days and the fact that so many European countries have stood with us shoulder-to-shoulder.
“These are not merely acts of war, these are war crimes. What Hamas has done is to perpetrate the worst war crimes since the Holocaust: the burning of people alive, cramming young people into a room, bringing spare tires from cars so there is more flames, burning them alive. This is the Holocaust methods.
“Shooting babies, bound children, shooting them in the face, killing children in front of their parents, killing parents in front of their children, the rape and murder of women, the kidnapping of old people, young people, families, carrying them away. You saw the picture of that little boy. Pushed. Beaten. It reminds us of the pictures from the worst periods of the Holocaust.
“If Hamas could have its way, it would do to us exactly what the Nazis did to the Jews—they would kill every last one of us, they would mutilate our bodies, they would behead us, and that’s what they did. And therefore, it’s important to understand that Hamas perpetrated the worst war crimes since World War II.
“And Hamas is ISIS in some respects. As [U.S.] President [Joe] Biden said, they’re worse than ISIS. And so they have to be treated the way ISIS was treated. The international community, banded together, to eradicate this horrible scourge. And I appreciate the fact that the international community and Europe is standing behind Israel so that we can eradicate this scourge. We are doing so, I think in the front line of civilization. This is the front line of civilization between barbarism. And we have to ensure that nobody meets with the barbarians.
“There are not diplomatic relations with ISIS, there are not diplomatic relations with Al-Qaeda after 9/11 and there is no harboring, states that harbor Hamas representation or harboring ISIS or Al Qaeda. That’s unthinkable. There should be a concrete position of the international community to apply sanctions on countries that do so. If we stand united, then civilization will win.
“Israel appreciates the support that you are giving us in these trying times, and I’m sure we’ll have other ideas that we’ll talk about in our meeting. Thank you, Ursula.”
