Israel’s far-right national security minister has reportedly asked whether the military could kill some captured Palestinians instead of arresting them, a move that comes after several extremist members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Cabinet The latest comments by one of the people in Gaza are dehumanizing.
Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir’s comments were revealed Friday by Hebrew broadcaster Channel 12 and Ynet and translated into English by The Times of Israel.
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Helj Halevi briefed ministers at a security cabinet meeting last week about recent operations in Gaza, where Israel has been conducting a military offensive for almost seven months in response to attacks by Hamas. did. On October 7, approximately 1,200 people were killed and approximately 250 were taken prisoner.
Halevi told a news conference that hundreds of Palestinians had recently been arrested after surrendering to the military.
“Why are there so many arrests?” Ben Gvir is said to have asked. “Can’t we kill some? Are you saying they’ll all surrender? What can we do with so many people arrested? It’s dangerous for the soldiers.”
According to the Times of Israel, Halevi was perplexed by the question and replied, “To whom is it dangerous?”
“We will not shoot anyone who comes out with his hands up. We will shoot those who fight with us,” an IDF official reportedly told Ben Gvir. “There is no dilemma here. Those who surrender will be arrested.”
Israel’s Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir is investigating the February 16 bus stop shooting in Kiryat Malachi, Israel, that killed two people and injured four others.Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images
“I don’t know whether you are an Israeli minister or a minister from another country,” Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter told Ben Gvir during the meeting, according to a translation of the conversation. Dichter, a former head of the Shin Bet security service, is himself considered a member of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s far-right cabinet.
Friday is not the first time Ben Gvir has reportedly called for the execution of Palestinian prisoners. Early this month, The Minister posted on social media Applying the death penalty to some prisoners would help solve the problem of prison overcrowding. The comments came after his proposal to build around 1,000 additional “prisons” for Palestinian prisoners was approved.
“Additional construction will allow the prison to accommodate more terrorists, providing a partial solution to the overcrowding crisis,” he wrote, according to a translation. “The death penalty for terrorists was previously the correct solution to the overcrowding problem. I’m glad the government approved the proposal I put forward.”
During February, Ben Gvir also called for the IDF. Shooting Palestinian women and children in Gaza to “protect” troops.
“We cannot have a situation where children and women approach us from the wall,” he told Halevi, according to Israeli media. “Anyone who approaches to compromise safety must be shot, or it will be October 7th again.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greets National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir during a media briefing ahead of the national budget vote at the Knesset in Jerusalem, May 23, 2023.Gil Cohen/Magen/AFP via Getty Images
Under international law, killing prisoners of war is considered a war crime. Israel has already been accused at the international level of committing genocide against Palestinians, which Israel strongly denies. But the indiscriminate killings that left more than 34,000 Gazans dead, the settler violence in the occupied West Bank, the blocking of life-saving aid, and the dehumanization used to describe Palestinians The language has drawn the ire of human rights groups. Including the United States, Israel’s biggest ally and arms supplier.
The Biden administration has made it clear that it opposes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right cabinet members, including Finance Ministers Bezalel Smotrich, Dichter and Ben Gvir, who call for the expulsion of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the return of Jewish settlements. I have to. Ben Gvir specifically told the Wall Street Journal in February that Biden was interfering with Israeli military operations and that former President Donald Trump would allow more freedom to fight in Gaza if he remained in power. After saying that he would, he faced anger from within the Israeli government.
With support from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ben Gvir entered parliament in 2021 leading the far-right Jewish Power party. The minister is a former member of the anti-Arab Kahane movement, which Israel banned in 1998 on grounds of terrorism, and has been convicted eight times for sedition and terrorism. He also respects Baruch Goldstein, the Israeli-American settler who shot dead 29 Palestinian worshipers at the Cave of the Patriarchs, a holy site for both Muslims and Jews, in Hebron in 1994. .
Ben Gvir suffered minor injuries Friday when the trooper ran a red light and hit another driver, causing his car to overturn.
