I want to bring in the Prime Minister right now.

Mr. Prime Minister, thank you very much for joining us this morning.

You've been accused of using starvation as a weapon of war.

I know you've called that decision by the prosecutors outrageous.

The prosecutor responded to that yesterday.

I want you to listen to what he had to say.

Israel has every right not to give succor to Hamas.

That is not contested.

Israel has every right and obligation to get hostages back.

But you must do so by complying with the law.

The fact that Hamas fighters need water doesn't justify denying water from all the civilian population of Gaza.

Your response?

Well, I think this is absurd.

This is beyond outrageous.

He said that we deny water.

He's making a totally false accusation here and everywhere else.

We are supplying now nearly half of the water of Gaza.

We supplied only 7% before the war.

So this is completely opposite of what he's saying.

He's saying that we're starving people.

You know, we have supplied half a million tons of food and medicine with 20,000 trucks.

This guy is out to demonize Israel.

He's doing a good job.

He's creating a false symmetry between the democratically elected leaders of Israel and the terrorist chieftains.

That's like saying after 9-11, well, I'm issuing arrest warrants for George Bush, but also for bin Laden.

Or after in World War II, well, I'm issuing arrest warrants for FDR, but also for Hitler.

It's a hit job.

It's not serious.

He's out to defame Israel.

And he's also pouring gasoline on the fires of anti-Semitism that are spreading around the world, because he is attacking the one and only Jewish state and trying to handcuff us, preventing us from exercising responsibly through the laws of war as we obey them and we are subordinate to them.

He's saying we're not.

He's creating false symmetry, false facts.

And he's doing a grave injustice to the international court.

As you know, there is a serious food crisis in Gaza right now.

Sidney McCain, head of the UN World Food Program, said parts of Gaza are undergoing full-blown famine.

Can you acknowledge that under international law, Israel has a legal obligation to prevent people in Gaza from starving?

Well, we certainly have an obligation to enable trucks to go in.

And as I said, we've enabled 20,000 trucks to go in.

We just fixed the road beds to enable those trucks to go in, and half a million tons of food and drugs.

So who's stopping this?

In fact, Hamas is the one that is looting these trucks while we're enabling them to go in.

We don't have a deliberate starvation diet.

We don't have policy.

In fact, we have the opposite policy, to allow maximum humanitarian aid to get people out of harm's way while Hamas is doing everything to keep them in harm's way at gunpoint.

And in fact, we've sent billions of text messages, phone calls, leaflets to people doing something that no army and no government has done in modern urban warfare, giving up the element of surprise, telling people, get out of harm's way and let us finish the war against the terrorists.

We're not targeting the population.

We're targeting the terrorists.

These are fallacious charges.

I think that they cast a terrible, a terrible stain on the ICC.

But I think serious countries are not taking them seriously.

And I was very glad to see that President Biden called them outrageous, as did many leaders, bipartisan support across the United States.

And people are now putting a bill in Congress, a bipartisan bill, to put sanctions on the

ICC prosecutor for doing such a terrible singling out of Israel, really, really a distortion and a travesty of justice.

Are you concerned about traveling in the wake of this arrest warrant?

No, I'm not concerned about traveling.

I think I'm not concerned at all about our status.

I think that the prosecutor should be concerned about his status because he's really turning the ICC into a pariah institution.

People are just not going to take it seriously.

They see it as a politicized thing.

I hope that the judges don't turn, don't confirm what he says, because that will make them into a kangaroo court.

Israel is fighting a just war, not only ours, not only our war.

We're fighting the war of all democracies, because if democracies are now faced with a situation that after taking incredible efforts to get people out of harm's way, to supply humanitarian aid on a vast scale, if they're told then they're hauled into the dock because the terrorists who are fighting them are using civilians as human shields, then others will do it again.

And every democracy will be pulled into the dock.

We're first.

You're next.

And many people understand that.

So that has to be stopped, and that has to be resisted.

And I can assure you, the vast majority of Israelis and all responsible leaders in the world understand that this should be resisted.

The big question is, what happens the day after the fighting stops?

Do you have a plan for the day after the war?

Absolutely.

I think the day after the war is, first of all, the day after Hamas.

You have to destroy Hamas.

Otherwise, Gazans don't have a future.

Peace doesn't have a future.

The expansion of peace doesn't have a future.

So get rid of Hamas.

That's our goal, number one.

Number two, demilitarize Gaza.

And the one sustained demilitarization I think requires that Israel have the overall responsibility to fight resurgent terrorists.

Three, ensure that Gaza or seek a civilian administration by Gazans who are not affiliated with Hamas and also don't seek the destruction of Israel.

And the last thing is, rebuild Gaza in a peaceful way using the support of moderate Arab states and the international community.

That's a realistic plan.

That's the one I have.

But it goes through victory.

There is peace and stability and prosperity only through victory.

The road to peace goes through victory over Hamas.

Mr. Prime Minister, thanks for your time.