Fact-checking Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress

CNN —

In his speech to Congress on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struck a defiant tone, pledging to carry on with the war in Gaza until Israeli hostages are released and Hamas is eliminated.

He defended Israel’s actions, pushing back against criticism that the war has gone on for too long and resulted in too many civilian casualties. In doing so, he made a number of claims about the war in Gaza that were either false, lacked context or were presented without evidence to support them.

We break them down here:

Aid entering Gaza

Claim: Netanyahu said Israel has “enabled more than 40,000 aid trucks to enter Gaza” adding that it amounts to “more than 3,000 calories for every man, women, and child in Gaza.”

Fact: More than a dozen aid agencies working in the territory have said that Israel’s statistics on truck entries “fail to address several vital components necessary for an effective operational response”.

“The mere entry of trucks into Gaza does not guarantee that the supplies reach the intended recipients due to safety and security reasons,” they said, adding that “reported numbers do not differentiate between types of cargo, often mixing commercial goods with critical humanitarian aid, which obscures the real picture of assistance reaching those in crisis.”

CNN has reported on Israel’s arbitrary and contradictory criteria for the entry of aid and the strict rules it enforces at checkpoints.

Rafah death toll

Claim: Netanyahu said a commander in Rafah told him that there practically no civilian deaths in the city with the exception of “a single incident where shrapnel from a bomb hit a Hamas weapons depot and unintentionally killed two dozen people.”

Fact: There have been