Israel's National Security Minister calls on the army to kill "30 or 40 Palestinians" from Gaza every night

BarcelonaIsrael's National Security Minister, the far-right Itamar Ben-Gvir, stated that Israeli forces should "kill 30 or 40" Palestinians every night in Gaza, in addition to those who may pose "a danger at this specific moment." Ben-Gvir made these statements to Rom Braslavski – who was kidnapped on October 7 and held in the Strip by Palestinian militias – in an episode of a podcast published on Sunday. "There are people there who do not deserve to live. They are not even human," the far-right politician added.

This is just the latest example of inflammatory statements by Ben-Gvir, who holds a key position in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government and is responsible for the Israeli police and prison services. The far-right minister has gained influence in Israel and wants to continue setting the narrative as the country heads towards the elections on October 27. Ben-Gvir has no formal authority over the army and cannot order attacks, but he is part of the Israeli security cabinet, composed of high-ranking ministers who participate in defining war and security policy.

Ben-Gvir disagreed with Netanyahu's decision to reduce military attacks in Gaza within the framework of the current "ceasefire," even though Israeli attacks on the Strip are daily: since the agreement announced with Hamas last October, the Israeli army has killed at least 1,262 Palestinians in the Strip and injured over 4,000. The minister advocates for resuming systematic killings, including people who are not considered an active threat.

Death penalty law

Ben-Gvir also promised Braslavski that he would try to allow him to personally participate in prisoner executions if the law on the death penalty for Palestinians, recently approved by Israel, is applied, which provides for this sentence for those convicted in military courts for deadly attacks against Israelis. The law is another example of the Israeli apartheid system, which does not provide for the same penalty for Israeli Jews who kill Palestinians. "I have a personal request, and I tell you looking you in the eye, minister. Let me be the one to hang them," Braslavski told Ben-Gvir, to which he replied: "I will move heaven and earth for it to be so. I promise you I will do everything I can."

During the conversation, Ben-Gvir also advocated for encouraging Palestinians to leave Gaza permanently and for the creation of new Israeli settlements in the Strip. He told Braslavski that he considers "all of Gaza as ours," a statement he has repeated on numerous occasions. These statements are equivalent to a call for ethnic cleansing.

Ben-Gvir's statements are part of a trajectory that goes back decades, since his involvement, as a teenager, in the Kahanist nationalist movement, banned in Israel. As minister, he has advocated for the death penalty as a default sentence for Palestinians found guilty of deadly attacks and has boasted of deliberately worsening conditions in Israeli prisons where Palestinian detainees are held, including the proposal to bring crocodiles to prisons. bring crocodiles to prisons.

Kushner meets with Hamas and Netanyahu

On the other hand, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump's special envoy for the Middle East and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met Netanyahu this Monday, after the latter had rejected the 15-point peace plan promoted by Washington. According to the Israeli newspaper "Haaretz", the meeting ended with an agreement to allow Israel to "continue attacks on Gaza for now, while the two sides continue to advance a plan for reconstruction and disarmament." The meeting was also attended by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Nickolay Mladenov, director of the Gaza Peace Board, and the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee. They also agreed to create a working group on Gaza's water sanitation infrastructure to prevent epidemics and contamination of the Strip's aquifers.

The objective is to achieve the disarmament of the Palestinian militia and the withdrawal of Israeli troops, who continue to occupy more than 60% of Gaza's territory. The ceasefire was announced on October 11, but more than 10 months later there have been no substantial advances, after the release of Israeli hostages exchanged for Palestinian prisoners.

Before, Kushner had met on Sunday in Cairo with the political leader of Hamas, Khalil al-Hayya, as confirmed by the Islamists, along with representatives from the mediating countries (Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey). In a subsequent statement, Hamas urged the Peace Board created by Trump, which is to be the colonial authority of Gaza, to "urge" Israel to accept the peace plan to advance to the next phases. Several Arab countries allied with the United States, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have issued a joint statement denouncing Israel's rejection of the peace plan and attributing to it "the responsibility for obstructing efforts to bring peace to Gaza." Jordan, Pakistan, and Indonesia, in addition to the mediators, have also signed the statement. According to the plan, Hamas must hand over weapons to a Palestinian technocratic government that is to govern the territory, but its members cannot enter Gaza because Israel vetoes them. At the same time, Hamas has said it will not hand over weapons unless a Palestinian state is created, which Israel does not outright refuse to accept. The start of disarmament is also blocked: Hamas says it will not hand over weapons until Israeli troops have withdrawn from Gaza, and Israel says it will not withdraw until Hamas disarms. Meanwhile, the population continues to suffer a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions, under a strict Israeli blockade that includes basic supplies such as food or fuel, and reconstruction has not begun.

All this in the context of the elections called in Israel for October 27, the first since the Palestinian attacks of October 2023, in which Netanyahu is playing to remain in power in coalition with the far-right.