COPENHAGEN: Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Saturday that Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu has become a “problem”, adding she would try to put pressure on Israel over the Gaza conflict as her country currently holds the EU presidency.

“Netanyahu is now a problem in himself,” Frederiksen said in an interview with the Jyllands-Posten daily, adding that the Israeli government was going “too far”. She also criticised Israel over plans to build a new settlement in the occupied West Bank.

She described the humanitarian situation in Gaza as absolutely appalling and catastrophic.

Frederiksen added that she wa­­nted to consider “political pressure, sanctions, whether against settlers, ministers, or even Israel as a whole”, referring to trade or research sanctions.

Israeli strikes kill 39 more in Gaza City

“We are not ruling anything out in advance. Just as with Russia, we are designing the sanctions to target where we believe they will have the greatest effect,” added Frederiksen, whose country is not among those who have said they will recognise the Palestinian state.

Israeli fire kills 39 more

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli attacks killed 39 people on Saturday, warning that intensifying strikes on a Gaza City neighbourhood were placing its remaining residents in mortal danger.

The Israeli forces have killed at least 61,827 people and wounded 155,275 since October 2023.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said conditions in the Zeitun neighbourhood were rapidly deteriorating, with residents having little to no access to food and water amid heavy Israeli bombardment.

Bassal said Israel was carrying out “ethnic cleansing” in Zeitun.

He said about 50,000 people are estimated to be in that area of Gaza City, “the majority of whom are without food or water” and lacking “the basic necessities of life”.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet approved plans to seize Gaza City, one of the most densely populated parts of the territory which has been devastated by more than 22 months of bombardment.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2025