Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has called for the killing of ’30 to 40′ people every night in Gaza and the establishment of Jewish settlements throughout the Palestinian enclave.
Ben-Gvir made the remarks during a podcast interview hosted by Rom Braslavski, who was taken hostage by the Palestinian militant group Hamas during its October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the war in Gaza.
The minister said he disagreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent scaling back of military operations in Gaza, which has come amid efforts by US officials to implement a peace plan unveiled by President Donald Trump last year.
‘I think we should be doing 30 to 40 targeted assassinations per night,’ Ben-Gvir said.
‘Not just those who pose an immediate threat. There are people there who don’t deserve to live. They are not even people.’
Calls for settlements throughout Gaza
Ben-Gvir also called for Jewish settlements to be re-established in the Palestinian territory, saying he envisaged ‘all Gaza’ belonging to Israel.
He reiterated his previous calls for Palestinians to ’emigrate’.
‘I imagine settlements not just in Gush Katif but throughout Gaza, and encouraging emigration, the more the better,’ he said, referring to settlements that Israel dismantled in 2005.
‘And for the terrorists, there should be no emigration. We should just kill them one by one.’
During Hamas’s October 7 attack, militants killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials, and took more than 250 hostages to Gaza, where they were held in harsh conditions. Many have said they suffered abuse during captivity.
Israel responded with a major offensive in Gaza, which has killed more than 73,000 people, according to Palestinian officials, and caused a humanitarian catastrophe in the enclave. This includes 1,200 people killed since a ceasefire took effect last October.
Israel rejects genocide accusations
The intensity of Israel’s offensive has drawn widespread international criticism. Over the past two years, a growing number of groups, including a UN commission, human rights organisations and genocide scholars, have accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel has strongly denied the accusations and said it complies with international law.
Ben-Gvir’s latest remarks add to a series of inflammatory statements by the far-right minister, who oversees Israel’s police and prison system.
He has previously said he had made conditions tougher in Israeli prisons, where there have been widespread reports of abuse involving Palestinian prisoners.
Death penalty law also backed
Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party also spearheaded efforts to pass a controversial law imposing the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis in acts of terror, but not on Jewish Israelis who kill Palestinians in similar circumstances.
During the interview, Braslavski, who was among the final hostages released by Hamas in October 2025, asked to be allowed to execute people sentenced to death on terrorism charges.
Ben-Gvir said he would do everything possible to fulfil the request.
‘I will move heaven and earth and I promise you to do everything so that this happens,’ he said.
‘It is one of my greatest dreams to see you there.’
