As it turned out I didn’t write specifically about this Ben-Gvir statement when some other media outlets did last week.
But I have written a few times about Ben-Gvir and some of his various statements, including when he called for “all of Lebanon to burn”
In that piece, I condemned Ben-Gvir’s comments, and accused him of undermining those like me who make the argument publicly that peace with Israel is possible and desirable.
The comments that surfaced last week included Ben-Gvir during an interview with former hostage Rom Braslavski saying:
“I think targeted assassinations should be carried out in Gaza, taking down 30 to 40 every night. Not just those who pose an immediate threat—there are people there who are not worthy of life. They shouldn’t live. They’re not even people.”
An Israeli reporter asked Ben-Gvir about these comments yesterday, and his response went viral once again.
Clash Report@clashreport
Reporter: Your statement about “40–50 killed in Gaza every day” created a huge uproar around the world. Ben Gvir: Excellent. Excellent. I prefer that they cry, and that a Jewish mother doesn’t cry over her soldier son. Reporter: Come on, Ben Gvir... You have to speak
9:26 PM · Aug 22, 2026 · 268K Views
68 Replies · 215 Reposts · 855 Likes
To be clear, I do recognise that Ben-Gvir is talking about people who were involved in the October 7 massacre. He’s not necessarily saying that he wants to just kill 30 random Palestinians.
But the problem is that targeted assassinations do often cause collateral damage. And that can result in civilian deaths.
But his justification is rather uncomfortable. He said that the reason he wants to kill these individuals in Gaza who he believes “are not worthy of life” is so that a “Jewish mother doesn’t cry over her soldier son”.
My stance is that I don’t want anybody to lose their son or daughter. I do believe Jewish lives are equally valuable to anybody else’s. This is why I am against the vicious antisemitism of groups like Hamas and Hezbollah who have a very real hatred of Jewish people in general, and believe in all sorts of absurd conspiracy theories about Jewish people.
But I can’t condone Israel assassinating people—even members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad—during an agreed ceasefire. The whole point of the ceasefire is supposed to be that it is a step towards peace, and an end to overt hostilities. That’s the point of agreeing to a ceasefire. You are agreeing to an organised climbdown in violence. You are agreeing to find alternative solutions to violence.
At the end of the day, peace is the best guarantor that Jewish mothers will not have to mourn their children. And simultaneously, it is the best guarantor that Palestinian mothers will not have to mourn their children.
Ben-Gvir might believe that Israelis have more worth than Palestinians as human beings.
I don’t agree. I believe in the equality of all. But regardless of what he might believe about Israeli lives having more value, if he really cared about Israelis he would take a different approach, one that actually protects Israeli lives.
Here’s the thing: Palestinian and Israeli fates in many ways are bound together. This is the nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We are in this together, and this conflict between us is traumatising to each other.
The civilians who were attacked on October 7 or who lost family on that day now carry trauma from that event. Similarly, Palestinian civilians who were harmed or killed in Gaza or who lost family during the war also carry a trauma.
What happens to traumatised people? Well, they are more likely to become radicalised or violent.
To fix this there has to be a line in the sand. We have to pursue peace as a way to stop retraumatising each other.
Of course, there is a legitimate case for legal prosecution against those who are members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad who committed atrocities on October 7. Current estimates suggest that out of the roughly 5,000 Palestinian attackers on that day, about 2,000 remain alive today, according to an analysis done by Mannie Fabian writing in The Times of Israel.
To be clear, I support the arrest, and trial, and the harshest legal penalties possible for those who have committed atrocities.
But I can’t understand the value of trying to assassinate them all instead of trying to arrest and prosecute them. Especially when the assassinations often end up killing civilians, too.
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