News- Middle East: A leading Israeli human rights organization has strongly condemned the recent comments made by the former spy chief of the Israeli military, Aharon Haliva, in which he openly justified large-scale Palestinian deaths in Gaza, stating that they are part of a larger pattern of similar statements that reveal a deliberate policy of genocide.

B’Tselem made the remarks in a post on X on Sunday, following the airing of leaked recordings of Haliva, suggesting that 50 Palestinians must die for each Israeli killed by the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas during the Operation al-Aqsa Storm on October 7, 2023. 

B’Tselem further emphasized that Israel has been carrying out a policy aimed at systematically destroying Palestinian life in Gaza for 22 months, asserting that senior officials in the Israeli regime and the military openly discuss causing devastation and annihilation in the besieged enclave.  

The rights group went on to say that the Israeli military conducts deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on Gaza as directed by its commanders, with no recognition of “uninvolved civilians” and every Palestinian being considered a target.

B’Tselem labeled this situation as ongoing genocide, stressing the importance of efforts to stop it.

In a series of leaked recordings aired by Israel’s Channel 12 on Saturday, Haliva said, "For every person killed on October 7, 50 Palestinians must die and it does not matter now if they are children,” calling the staggering death toll "necessary for future generations."

He also said, "They need a Nakba every now and then to feel the price," referring to the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

Haliva’s remarks marked the first time such extreme statements have been aired from a senior Israeli figure, exposing the brutality with which mass Palestinian deaths have been justified in the Gaza war.

The former intelligence chief, who stepped down in the aftermath of the October 7 operation, sharply criticized senior Israeli officials, including prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for refusing to resign after the October 7 attacks. 

He said that the intelligence community’s arrogance masked deeper cultural failures that had persisted for years.

Haliva, who had previously taken public responsibility for the failures, has become the first senior Israeli figure to acknowledge that Tel Aviv had failed to foresee and prevent the Hamas operation, which he said had consequences that were "severe and painful”.

Since October 7, Israel has unleashed a full-scale military campaign against Gaza. The regime’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed nearly 61,827 Palestinians and injured 155,275 others, mostly women and children.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the blockaded territory.

Source: Press TV