It aired on May 9, the same day Netanyahu released a video message on X vowing to "stand alone" to defeat Hamas, if necessary. He said Israel "will fight tooth and nail" to defeat the terrorist organization.
Netanyahu also shared Thursday that a U.S. threat to withhold some weapons would not deter Israel from expanding its offensive in Gaza. A limited Israeli operation earlier this week captured the Gaza side of Rafah's border crossing with Egypt, throwing humanitarian operations into crisis.
The Israel-Hamas war began Oct. 7, 2023 when terrorists attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250 others. Israel said militants still hold around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.
Dr. Phil: How are the Israeli people holding up seven months into this conflict?
Netanyahu: “They’re holding up incredibly well. They’re very strong. They’re united. They understand that we face a genocidal enemy that we have to defeat in order to assure our future. It’s not only Hamas monsters that we face. We face the whole Iran terror axis that openly declares its goal to destroy everything you see around. To destroy us… to affect another Holocaust. And that’s not going to happen. We have the strength of ages here.”
Dr. Phil: When we talk about Hamas, we’re clearly talking about a terror group. This is not a government. It’s a militia – a terrorist group. Right?
Netanyahu: "There are also terror governments like Iran but this is a smaller version. In its charter it says ‘Kill every Jew on Earth.’ Everywhere you find them. If a Jew hides behind a bush, find him, and kill him. It actually said that in the charter. And these people are particularly brutal and savage. What they did on October 7th is incredible. They murdered innocent men and women… they raped women and beheaded them. They burned babies alive. They took hostages. Men, women, little boys – babies. And then they broadcast it live. GoPro. They were proud of their savagery. I have to say that this is the worst savagery that the Jewish people have experienced since the Holocaust."
Dr. Phil: Are Palestinians complicit in this or are they just hiding among them?
Netanyahu: “You have both conditions because we went into residential buildings where these terrorists hide and where they shoot from. They go to hospitals, schools and residential areas. But when we went into these residential areas, we found tablets. And you open the tablet and you see a picture of Adolf Hitler. And in another building, you see texts of Hitler’s Mein Kampf, which is the work that itemized – laid the plan for the destruction of the 6 million Jews in the Holocaust. So, they educate their children to this unfathomable hatred of Jews. To this murderous mentality. And many comply with it and those who don’t are used as human shields anyway. They use them as human shields and they target civilians, and they hide behind their own civilians. They target ours and hide behind theirs. That is a double war crime. And of course this makes Israel’s task so much more difficult."
Annie Gimbel
