Assessing Netanyahu’s Speech to Congress

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, in a defiant address to members of Congress on Wednesday, defended his country’s war with Hamas in Gaza and criticized American protesters and international human rights groups.

Some of his remarks have been disputed by human rights groups, and others are unverifiable or lacked context. Here’s a closer look.

“The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has shamefully accused Israel of deliberately starving the people of Gaza. This is utter, complete nonsense. It’s a complete fabrication. Israel has enabled more than 40,000 aid trucks to enter Gaza. That’s half a million tons of food, and that’s more than 3,000 calories for every man, woman and child in Gaza.”

Aid groups and the United Nations have warned that hundreds of thousands of Gazans face starvation and that the strip is on the brink of famine.

Mr. Netanyahu contended that none of that was Israel’s fault, and referred to one analysis of aid that has entered Gaza. In a working paper using data from COGAT, the Israeli military agency coordinating aid delivery, academics in Israel calculated that more than 14,000 aid trucks had entered Gaza from January to April and provided food equivalent to more than 3,300 calories per day.

But the number of trucks allowed into the strip and the amount of aid they carry have been in dispute. Israel and the United Nations used different methodologies to track the deliveries. Moreover, once aid enters Gaza, it is not clear how much reaches those in need. NPR recently reported on sacks of flour and boxes of fruit and vegetables piling up on the Gazan side of a crossing. Humanitarian groups told NPR that difficulties in coordinating movement with the Israeli military, the continuing