Israeli PM meets Italian counterpart, Cypriot President amid war in country, says ‘Have to defeat this barbarism’

Amid the conflict in Gaza and the looming ground assault on the terror group Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides on Saturday.

Calling on the Italian PM, Netanyahu said, "We have to defeat this barbarism," adding that this battle is between the forces of civilization and “really monstrous barbarians who murdered, mutilated, raped, beheaded, and burned innocent people, babies, and grandmothers.”

"This is a test, a test of civilization, and we will win. And we expect all the countries that lined up to fight ISIS, to line up and fight Hamas because Hamas is the new ISIS," the Israeli PM's office posted from its handle on social media platform X.

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Meloni assured Netanyahu of Italy's support for Israel.

"We defend the rights of Israel of defending itself... for its people. We absolutely understand that terrorism has to be fought, and we believe that you are able to do that in the best way, and we are different from those terrorists," the Italian PM said.

Netanyahu then met Cypriot President Christodoulides, stressing that it was a "battle of civilisation against barbarism".

"What we saw in Gaza, along with our communities, is beyond description. It is savagery that is the worst that we've seen against Jewish people since the Holocaust. They captivated people, raped women," he said at a joint press briefing with the Cypriot President.

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"Our battle against Hamas is the battle of civilization against barbarism," Netanyahu added.

Invoking his old address at the UN, during which he drew a parallel between Hamas and ISIS, the Israeli PM's office posted on X, "Hamas, as I said in the UN ten years ago, almost a decade ago, Hamas is ISIS. People didn't believe me. Now they know it's actually worse than ISIS, as President Biden said, and Chancellor Scholz said that Hamas are the new Nazis. The world united to fight the Nazis. The civilised world united to fight ISIS. And now, the civilised world should stand with us as we defeat ISIS. This is our goal."

Earlier, US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also visited Israel, amid the ongoing retaliation to the November 7 terror attacks, which have, so far, claimed more than 1,400 lives.

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