“Having witnessed numerous conflicts and crises throughout my career,” remarked Arif Husain, the chief economist for the U.N.’s World Food Program, in a recent interview with the New Yorker. “I can assert that I have never encountered a situation of this magnitude, severity, or rapid escalation of suffering.” His statement underscores the unprecedented scale of the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza, drawing urgent attention to the critical need for support and resolution.
The profound human suffering erupting in Gaza receives little empathy in the Israeli public discourse, where the primary focus remains the eradication of Hamas — the perpetrators of the most horrific massacre of Jews since the Holocaust — along with the liberation of hostages held in the Gaza Strip. There is a continuous stream of statements from Israeli officials and politicians advocating for increasingly severe actions against the region, reflecting a troubling disregard for the humanitarian crisis at hand.
Members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conservative coalition have publicly called for extreme measures, including the use of nuclear weapons against densely populated Gaza, advocating for the complete annihilation of the area as a form of vengeance. They propose to impoverish its inhabitants to the extent that they feel compelled to flee their homeland, highlighting a disturbing strategy that prioritizes retribution over humanitarian considerations.
Recently, a lawmaker from Netanyahu’s Likud party appeared on television and stated that it was apparent to many Israelis that “all the Gazans must be destroyed.” Furthermore, Israel’s ambassador to Britain conveyed to local radio that the only solution for her country was to demolish “every school, every mosque, every second house” in Gaza to dismantle Hamas’s military infrastructure, revealing the extreme measures being discussed at high levels of government.
This rhetoric of destruction forms a significant component of the 84-page application submitted by the South African government to the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of actions that amount to genocide or complicity in genocide. While the application condemns Hamas’s actions on October 7, it argues that “no armed attack on a State’s territory, regardless of severity — even one involving atrocity crimes — can justify or defend breaches” of the Genocide Convention. The report outlines how Israel’s military operations in Gaza have already “laid waste to vast areas of Gaza, including entire neighborhoods, and have damaged or destroyed over 355,000 Palestinian homes,” rendering significant portions of the area uninhabitable for an extended period. The South African complaint asserts that Israeli officials have failed to curb “direct and public incitement to commit genocide” by various Israeli political figures, journalists, and public officials.
This includes far-right figures such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who are open about their vision for an ethnically cleansed Gaza. “What needs to happen in the Gaza Strip is to encourage emigration,” Smotrich stated in an interview on Israeli Army Radio. “If there are 100,000 or 200,000 Arabs in Gaza instead of 2 million, the entire conversation about the future will be completely different.” Ben Gvir has also called for the de facto forced movement of hundreds of thousands of Gazans, underscoring the drastic and troubling proposals being made.
Western leaders, including those from the U.S., have denounced these inflammatory statements as “irresponsible.” However, such criticism has done little to change the prevailing tone of the discourse. Netanyahu himself, according to insider reports, has attempted to persuade Egypt and other Arab governments to accept Gazan refugees — a proposal that has met with staunch resistance, as many in the region fear further Palestinian dispossession of their lands.
The calls for ethnic cleansing and potential Israeli settlement in Gaza may not accurately reflect the broader realities faced by Israel’s wartime cabinet. “Privately, Israeli officials acknowledge that these proposals [to relocate Gazans] are driven by the political necessities of Netanyahu’s coalition and his reliance on far-right parties to maintain power,” reported my colleagues.
“Experts within the military and security sectors recognize that this scenario is not a feasible option,” disclosed a source familiar with discussions within the Israeli government, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the topic. “They understand that there can be no sustainable future without the presence of Gazans in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority as part of the governance framework.”
However, Netanyahu and his allies remain notably vague about their ultimate vision for Gaza. This ambiguity, experts argue, only intensifies concerns regarding Israel’s intentions among its Arab neighbors, including Gulf monarchies that were beginning to warm to the idea of normalizing relations with the Jewish state.
“No one is willing to take the necessary steps that would precede new normalization agreements while Netanyahu dismisses Arab states’ demands for a two-state solution and insists they should finance Gaza’s reconstruction without any conditions,” stated Michael Koplow and David Halperin of the Israel Policy Forum.
“Iran and its proxies will not be deterred while high-ranking U.S. officials outline their vision for a post-war Gaza, and Israeli cabinet members scramble to publicly counter these narratives,” they added, emphasizing the critical need for the Biden administration to encourage Israeli leaders to confront these complex realities.
Meanwhile, a group of prominent Israelis, including former legislators and leading academics, issued a joint letter recently condemning Israeli judicial authorities for failing to adequately address the genocidal rhetoric prevalent in public discourse. “For the first time in our memory, the explicit calls to commit heinous crimes against millions of civilians have become a legitimate and regular part of Israeli dialogue,” they wrote. “Today, such calls are disturbingly commonplace in Israel.”
