Israeli diplomat, politician call for 'complete destruction of Gaza' in live television rants

An Israeli former diplomat has called for the "complete destruction" of the besieged and bombarded Gaza Strip on live television, as Tel Aviv continues to wage its indiscriminate war on the enclave for the twenty-first consecutive day.

Dror Eydar, Israel’s former ambassador to Italy, said: "For us, there is a purpose: to destroy Gaza, to destroy the absolute evil," in a television interview on Thursday with Italian channel Rete 4. 

The former envoy, who is also a columnist with the Israeli daily newspaper Israel Hayom, added that Tel Aviv is not "interested in rational discussions" about Palestinians.

Eydar, who served as ambassador between 2019 and 2022, made further inflammatory comments on the discussion show Stasera Italia. He went on to describe Palestinians as "animals" and said anyone "who harms a Jew must die".

“Per noi c'è uno scopo: distruggere #Gaza, distruggere questo male assoluto”.

Parola di Dror Eydar, ex ambasciatore di #Israele in Italia dal 2019 al 2022, a @StaseraItalia.
Non è una guerra, ma un #genocidio.
Non è “diritto alla difesa”, ma pulizia etnica della #Palestina. pic.twitter.com/LXwxrKVn3V

— Giuliano Granato (@Giul_Granato) October 26, 2023

The former ambassador’s remarks were condemned online by Italian activists.

"It is not a war, but a genocide. It is not the right to defence, but ethnic cleansing of Palestinians," one user said on X, formerly Twitter.

In a similar incident, former Knesset member Moshe Feiglin said Gaza should also be "completely destroyed", stating that the besieged territory should suffer the same fate as the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the German city of Dresden during World War II.

"There is one and only solution, which is to completely destroy Gaza before invading it. I mean destruction like what happened in Dresden and Hiroshima, without nuclear weapons."

Feiglin, in a video broadcast by Al Jazeera Mubasher, further said: "I don’t recall Biden or his predecessors provided safe passageways for the residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki," in what appeared to be a reference to international calls for a humanitarian ceasefire.

Earlier this week, the media office of the Gaza authorities said that Israel had dropped over 12,000 tons of explosives on the territory, which they described as the "equivalent to the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945."

Feiglin has a history of making incendiary comments against Palestinians and Arabs. In a separate interview with an Israeli broadcaster earlier, Feiglin said that Gaza must be "annihilated now."

The two Israelis' comments come as Tel Aviv continues to launch relentless and indiscriminate airstrikes against the Gaza Strip which began on October 7, targeting residential buildings, schools, hospitals and places of worship.

Israeli strikes have killed at least 7,326 Palestinians, with the death toll increasing by the hundreds with each passing day.

Israel has been accused by a number of rights groups and governments of carrying out war crimes as it bombs the territory and imposes a "complete siege".