- Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu ignited global condemnation Thursday after declaring that the Gaza Strip should be “wiped out” and replaced with Jewish settlements. His remarks, echoing past controversial statements, raise fresh questions about Israel’s long-term territorial aims and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
JERUSALEM, Israel (TDR) — Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu said Thursday that Israel is working to “wipe out” the Gaza Strip, calling the Palestinian territory a breeding ground of evil and stating that it would soon be settled entirely by Jews.
“The government is racing ahead for Gaza to be wiped out,” Eliyahu told Radio Kol Berama, according to The Times of Israel. “Thank God, we are wiping out this evil. We are pushing this population that has been educated on Mein Kampf.”
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Mr. Eliyahu, a member of Itamar Ben Gvir’s Jewish Power party, asserted that Gaza would become fully Jewish and that any future settlements would not be segregated or isolated into “cantons.”
“All Gaza will be Jewish,” he said. “We aren’t racists,” he added, claiming Arabs loyal to Israel may be tolerated — though he offered no clarity on what that would entail.
His comments have drawn sharp criticism from international observers, particularly in light of the humanitarian crisis facing Gaza’s population. Despite widespread reports of starvation and mass displacement, Mr. Eliyahu denied that hunger exists in Gaza.
“There’s no hunger in Gaza,” he claimed. “But we don’t need to be concerned with hunger in the Strip. Let the world worry about it.”
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This is not Mr. Eliyahu’s first brush with inflammatory rhetoric. In 2023, he suggested nuclear bombardment of Gaza as a potential strategy and stated there were no innocent civilians in the territory. At the time, he said Gaza had no right to exist and those flying Palestinian or Hamas flags “shouldn’t continue living on the face of the earth.”
How long can Israeli leadership accommodate such rhetoric without consequences for its democratic character and regional standing?
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