Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has publicly called for Israeli forces to carry out nightly targeted killings of "30 to 40" people in Gaza, saying the strikes should go beyond those considered active threats. "There are people there who are not worthy of life. They shouldn't live. They're not even people," Ben-Gvir said in a podcast interview that surfaced on Sunday and spread rapidly across international and Palestinian media. The remarks drew widespread condemnation and renewed scrutiny of the far-right minister's growing influence within Israeli political life.
Ben-Gvir made the comments while speaking with Rom Braslavski, a former Israeli hostage held in Gaza following the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023, on his podcast. The minister said he disagreed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent decision to scale back military strikes in Gaza — a move interpreted as a quiet concession to US President Donald Trump, who has been pushing a fresh peace plan for the territory. Ben-Gvir, who sits on Israel's security cabinet — a body of senior ministers that helps shape war and security policy — has no formal authority to order military strikes, but his position gives him significant influence over the direction of Israeli strategy.
In the same interview, Ben-Gvir called for the mass emigration of Palestinians from Gaza and the resettlement of the territory by Israeli Jews, saying he saw "all of Gaza as ours." He referenced the Israeli settlements dismantled in 2005 — known collectively as Gush Katif — and said he envisioned new settlements "throughout Gaza." International lawyers have warned that engineered or forced displacement of this scale could constitute ethnic cleansing under international law. Ben-Gvir also promised Braslavski that he would do everything in his power to allow him to personally carry out executions under Israel's recently enacted death penalty law, which applies to Palestinians convicted in military courts of deadly attacks on Israelis.
The remarks are consistent with a long record of inflammatory statements by Ben-Gvir, whose political roots lie in the Kahanist nationalist movement, which was outlawed in Israel and designated a terrorist organisation in the United States. As minister, he oversees Israel's national police force and its prison system, where thousands of Palestinians from Gaza and the occupied West Bank are held. He has previously boasted of reducing food rations for Palestinian prisoners; Israel's Supreme Court ruled in 2025 that the prison service under his authority was depriving detainees of a minimum subsistence diet. His statements have been submitted to the International Court of Justice as evidence in genocide proceedings against Israel, which Israel firmly denies.
The near-silence of Israeli domestic media on Ben-Gvir's latest comments has been noted by analysts, who see it as a sign of how views once considered extreme have moved closer to the mainstream ahead of Israeli elections scheduled for 27 October. More than 1,250 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since a ceasefire deal came into effect in October, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health, and over 100,000 in total since the conflict began, according to medical sources. Ben-Gvir has been sanctioned or banned by more than ten countries, including the United Kingdom, France, Canada, and Australia, though these measures have had no visible effect on his conduct or political standing.