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Itamar Ben-Gvir says Israel should kill '30 to 40' people in Gaza nightly

newsAug 17, 2026271,397

Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir told former Gaza-held hostage Rom Braslavski on Braslavski’s podcast that Israel should carry out “targeted assassinations” in Gaza, “taking down 30 to 40 every night,” and added “there are people there who are not worthy of life. They shouldn’t live. They’re not even people.” Ben-Gvir made the remarks while criticizing a recent drawdown of strikes and advocated for mass emigration from Gaza and resettlement by Israel, a proposal international lawyers say could amount to ethnic cleansing. Ben-Gvir does not control the military and cannot order strikes, but he runs the country’s prisons and the national police and has increased influence since Oct. 7, 2023. Similar statements by Ben-Gvir and other officials have been presented to the U.N. world court as evidence of genocidal intent; Israel denies committing genocide in Gaza. Israel’s top court ruled in 2025 that the prison service under Ben-Gvir was depriving Palestinian detainees of a minimum subsistence diet. Until recently Israel struck Gaza nearly every day; Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 1,250 people have been killed since an October truce deal took effect, and Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Israeli domestic media have given sparse coverage of Ben-Gvir’s comments as hard-right positions gain traction ahead of Israeli elections on Oct. 27.

Al Jazeera English
@aljazeera.com

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has called for nightly killings in Gaza of dozens of people who he says are ‘not worthy of life’. It’s the latest in a series of attempts at making life unbearably harsh for Palestinians.

28316h ago
Scott Horton
@robertscotthorton.bsky.social

Israel should be killing “30 to 40” people each night in Gaza and should build Jewish settlements in the Palestinian enclave, the country’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, stated during an interview on a podcast hosted by Rom Braslavski.

18111h ago
Jonathan Cohn
@jonathancohn.bsky.social

People often try to say that he isn't representative of the government, but Ben-Gvir is the national security minister. www.huffpost.com/entry/ap-ml-...

997h ago
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