Israeli Minister Says GOP Leaders Agree That Gaza “Aid Depots Should Be Bombed”
Experts have said that Israel’s withholding and targeting of humanitarian aid amount to genocidal acts.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and top Republican leaders at Mar-a-Lago agreed in a meeting that Israel should continue bombing humanitarian aid in Gaza, Ben-Gvir has said — effectively admitting that he is getting express support from top U.S. leaders to commit what experts have deemed as war crimes and genocidal acts.
Ben-Gvir is visiting the U.S. this week for the first time as minister. On Tuesday, he attended a dinner with senior Republican Party members, including GOP House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (Indiana), at the Donald Trump-owned estate.
“I had the honor and privilege of meeting with senior members of the Republican Party at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate,” Ben-Gvir wrote in a post on social media early Wednesday morning.
“They expressed support for my clear stance on how action should be taken in Gaza — that food and aid depots should be bombed to create military and political pressure to bring our hostages home,” he said.
Targeting humanitarian aid and relief workers without a legitimate military target is a war crime. Israel’s campaign of withholding and attacking humanitarian aid efforts has been so horrific that its actions have been deemed not just violations of international law, but also genocidal acts by international law experts.
The humanitarian catastrophe that Israel has created in Gaza is currently reaching new depths, aid groups say, with Israel having blocked all aid from entering Gaza for over 50 days now. The UN has said that the crisis is at “unprecedented levels,” with all 2 million Palestinians in Gaza “trapped, starving and desperate,” with food, water, medicine, and all other essential supplies rapidly running out.
“Hunger is spreading and deepening, deliberate and manmade. Gaza has become a land of desperation. Two million people — a majority of women and children — are undergoing collective punishment,” said UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) head Philippe Lazzarini in a statement this week. “Humanitarian aid is being used as a bargaining chip and a weapon of war.”
Yet, Ben-Gvir and top Republicans reportedly believe that Israel should bomb what few supplies there are left in Gaza, in a seeming effort to accelerate Israel’s extermination campaign. Ben-Gvir has repeatedly called for Israel to resettle Gaza, a genocidal plan supported by President Donald Trump and his administration.
The Trump administration is openly embracing violators of human rights. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced that he is eliminating an office whose stated mission is to advance human rights across the world, while the State Department is also eliminating condemnations of human rights violations from its annual reports, including denunciations of poor prison conditions.
At the meeting with GOP leaders, as well as dozens of business men from Miami, Ben-Gvir boasted about eroding conditions in Israel’s torture camps, where Palestinians are tortured to death, among other abuses.
While in southern Florida, Ben-Gvir also visited a police station, a prison and a Jewish-owned gun store.
On Wednesday, Ben-Gvir is slated to speak at Yale University, where students last week erected a Gaza solidarity encampment to protest his visit. Organizers disbanded the encampment on Tuesday night after threats of “retribution” from the university administration, with 200 protesters having gathered.