– We are the most humane army ever – NRK Urix – Foreign news and documentaries

– People with white flags have been shot. People in “safe sonar” have become bombs. We have seen your forces kill people fleeing from the bombs in the last few months?

– We feel that we are the most humane army that has ever existed, Mencer replies, and claims that Israel investigates and scrutinizes such “accidents”.

– Just like democracy does, he says.

NRK has met the new spokesperson for the Israeli government, David Mencer, for a longer interview.

These are some of the main points.

Rafah’s turn

In October, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were told to flee south. Those who could, traveled. After hard ground battles in the north, it is now South Gaza’s turn.

Israel asks over a million Palestinians to evacuate north again.

Mencer says that Israel will evacuate the Palestinians in the same way as in October, by setting up what he calls safe zones and refuge centers.

But the stories of civilians with white flags who have been killed by Israeli soldiers scare people from embarking on yet another escape.

What happens to Gaza after the war?

After half a year of war, large parts of Gaza are completely uninhabitable. Those who have evacuated north again have returned to their neighborhoods in ruins.

– When Hamas is crushed militarily and politically, Gaza must be rebuilt. A more hopeful future must embrace the people, says Mencer.

– We must do the same as in Germany in 1945, where the Allies magnanimously built up Germany, which was destroyed by the Allies. And we must deradicalize.

– Should Israel rebuild Gaza?

– We didn’t want this war and we didn’t ask for him, says Mencer.

– The allies didn’t want that either, but they helped rebuild Germany. The dive bombing has caused damage in Gaza worth 18.2 billion dollars. Will Israel pay for the construction?

– Nothing will make Israel happier than having peaceful neighbors in Gaza, who are prosperous. A Gaza that can provide a better future for the children, who are not radicalized, and who do not wage war and send rockets at us.

When Mencer is again asked whether Israel wants to pay to rebuild Gaza, he interrupts the question and states that “peace is important to us”, but that he cannot answer the question.

According to the UN, it can take 14 years to clear the strip of land, which indicates that there are around 37 million tonnes of wreckage and ammunition that has not exploded in densely populated areas.

Kill Hamas soldiers

Mencer claims that Hamas has 24 battalions in the Gaza Strip, and that the Israeli Defense Forces have destroyed 18 or 19 of them during the war. Four of those still standing will be in Rafah.

– They say they have destroyed 18 battalions. Do they have proof?

– We know how many Islamic Jihad and Hamas terrorists we have killed. We have killed 13,000 terrorists.

– We have never seen evidence of this.

– I am a spokesperson for this government and the Israeli people, and tell you here and now that we have killed 13,000 armed terrorists, Mencer states.

– We have seen the gold standard in targeting the war against terrorists and getting civilians away from dangerous areas, says Mencer.

According to Mencer, Israeli soldiers have calculated this number by counting everyone who has fired at them.

Total number of killed

The Hamas-controlled health authorities in the Gaza Strip have published lists of killed Palestinians with both names and ID numbers. On Friday, the number of Palestinians killed in the war is 34,356.

In previous wars, the Palestinian health authorities have provided almost identical numbers of people killed as Israel has. But Israel believes that the speech is not credible in this war, unlike the UN.

When asked about this, Mencer rhetorically asks back if one would take statements from the Islamic State (IS) for good fish.

When asked what lies behind Israel’s own calculations that they have killed 13,000 combatants on the Palestinian side, Mencer replies:

– These are figures that the Armed Forces have given us, in a democratic country with checks and investigations. With western values, which Norway has, or should have.

– Critics say they are committing genocide in the war, according to UN experts. Israel must answer for itself in the International Criminal Court, which says there is plausible reason to believe that genocide is being carried out in Gaza. The EU says that starvation is being used as a weapon against 2.2 million Palestinians. Doesn’t this sound like a gold standard?

– There is a lot in this question. A genocide was committed against my people, indiscriminate killing. We, the Jewish people, recognize evil when we see it, Mencer replies.

Mencer further says that he is shocked by South Africa’s claims that Israel is carrying out genocide in Gaza.

– We are clear that this is a terrible and dangerous war. We have lost 606 soldiers in the war, but the country stands together. We want to close, because we have nowhere else to go. There are no other Jewish states.

UNRWA and Hamas?

Israel claims that 450 employees in UNRWA are linked to terrorist activities, and that 12 of them were directly involved in the terrorist attack on 7 October.

This led to several donor countries stopping financial support for the organisation.

– Now most have taken up support. Even Germany. No one believes your evidence.

– It makes us upset, to be honest. We have presented more evidence of the relationship between UNRWA and Hamas, says Mencer.

But according to an independent investigative report, there is no evidence that UNRWA employees are connected to terrorist activities.

Most donor countries have therefore taken up support for UNRWA, which accounts for 80 per cent of the emergency aid that enters the Gaza Strip.

In the interview, which you can find at the top of the article, you can hear the answer to why Israel has attacked hospitals, Israel’s view of the UN, why Israel does not follow the Security Council’s demands for a ceasefire and why Israel does not allow international press into the Gaza Strip.