LONDON: Israel’s former military intelligence chief has claimed that the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza were necessary “as a message for future generations.”
Aharon Haliva can be heard in an audio broadcast by Israel’s Channel 12 saying that 50 Palestinians should die for every one Israeli killed in the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli media reported.
“It does not matter now if they are children,” he said. “There’s no choice, they need a Nakba every now and then to feel the consequences.”
Nakba refers to the “catastrophe” of 1948 when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced to flee their homes and land during the foundation of the Israeli state.
Haliva, who resigned last year over intelligence failings surrounding the Oct. 7 attacks, can be heard justifying the devastating death toll in Gaza, which he put at 50,000.