Israel ‘racing to wipe out Gaza, eliminate its people’: Heritage minister

By Abdel Raouf Arnaout and Tarek Chouiref

JERUSALEM / ISTANBUL (AA) - Israel’s far-right Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu said Thursday that his government is “racing against time to wipe out Gaza and its Palestinian population,” adding that the territory will become “entirely Jewish.”

“The government is racing to wipe out Gaza. We are eliminating this evil. We are eliminating its residents,” Eliyahu told Israel’s Kol Barama radio.

“Gaza will become completely Jewish.”

Eliyahu, a member of the ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) Party led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, dismissed concerns over growing hunger in the enclave.

“We do not need to deal with Gaza’s hunger,” he said.

The minister also lashed out at opposition figures critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, saying, “These sick people like Yair Golan and Ehud Olmert have lost their identity and their support for the people of Israel.”

Israel has killed more than 59,200 Palestinians, most of them women and children, in the Gaza Strip since October 2023. The military campaign has devastated the enclave, collapsed the health system, and led to severe food shortages.

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 enclave.