Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called for Israel to stop “killing babies,” earning a furious response from Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trudeau said on Tuesday that the “killing of women, of children, of babies” in the besieged Gaza Strip must end. Netanyahu pushed back, insisting that Hamas is responsible for civilian deaths as Israeli forces continue to batter the enclave.

“I urge the government of Israel to exercise maximum restraint,” Trudeau said in his sharpest criticism of Israel since the war on Gaza broke out more than five weeks ago. “The world is watching, on TV, on social media – we’re hearing the testimonies of doctors, family members, survivors, kids who have lost their parents. “The world is witnessing this killing of women, of children, of babies. This has to stop,” he told a news conference in the western province of British Columbia.

In a post on X directed at Trudeau, early on Wednesday, Netanyahu said: “It is not Israel that is deliberately targeting civilians but Hamas that beheaded, burned and massacred civilians in the worst horrors perpetrated on Jews since the Holocaust.” “The forces of civilization must back Israel in defeating Hamas barbarism,” Netanyahu continued.