ISRAEL’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, says Israeli forces should “kill 30 or 40” people in Gaza every night and go beyond “those who pose a danger … at that particular moment”.
Ben-Gvir made the comments to Rom Braslavski – a former Israeli captive held in Gaza as Israel waged a genocidal war on the territory after the Hamas-led attacks in October 2023 – in a podcast episode that surfaced on Sunday and was shared widely across Palestinian media.
“There are people there who are not worthy of life. They shouldn’t live. They’re not even people,” Ben-Gvir added while calling for the targeted killings of Palestinians in Gaza.
The remarks are the latest in a long record of extreme statements from Ben-Gvir, who sits in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government and controls Israel’s police and prison services.
The far-right minister has gained influence in Israel as the country heads towards elections on October 27.
Ben-Gvir told Braslavski that he disagreed with Netanyahu’s decision to scale back military strikes in Gaza under the current “ceasefire”, arguing instead for renewed targeted assassinations that would go beyond people considered active threats.
He has no formal authority over the military and cannot order strikes himself, though he sits on Israel’s security cabinet, a group of senior ministers who help shape war and security policy.
Ben-Gvir also promised Braslavski that he would seek to allow him to personally take part if prisoners are executed under Israel’s recently enacted death penalty law for Palestinians convicted in military courts of deadly attacks on Israelis.
“I have a personal request, and I am truly looking you in the eyes, minister. Let me be the one who hangs them,” Braslavski told Ben-Gvir.
“I don’t want a rope; I want a button on a gun. With my own hands, I will execute every terrorist in the state of Israel,” he added.
Ben-Gvir replied: “I will turn the world upside down to make that happen. I promise you that I will do everything I can and turn the world upside down until it happens.”
In the discussion, Ben-Gvir also called for Palestinians to be encouraged to leave Gaza permanently, alongside new Israeli settlement of the territory, telling Braslavski he saw “all of Gaza as ours”, a comment he has repeated on many occasions.
International lawyers have warned that mass, forced or engineered emigration of this kind could amount to ethnic cleansing.
Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,250 people in Gaza since the “ceasefire” took hold in October, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
Ben-Gvir’s comments fit a pattern stretching back decades, from his teenage involvement with the outlawed nationalist Kahanist movement.
As minister, he has championed the death penalty as a default sentence for Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks, and has boasted of deliberately worsening conditions in Israeli prisons holding Palestinian detainees.
That record has drawn international criticism, but without serious consequence. He has been sanctioned by the United Kingdom and some European Union states, but this has not had an effect on his actions.