Israeli minister threatens civilians with genocide

And yet the Western media have buried this naked genocidal threat. This is complicity in genocide

The Israeli defence minister has broadcast a speech openly promising genocide against the Palestinian people of Gaza.

There is no subtlety here, none. There isn’t even the slightest pretence about abiding by the very basic fundamentals of international law. There isn’t even the slightest pretence that the civilian population isn’t to be targeted for death and destruction. There is no room for any other interpretation given.

And yet this openly, brazenly, unapologetically genocidal speech from the man in charge of the Israeli army has not been covered by many Western media outlets, and when it has been covered, it’s without accuracy, prominence, urgency - indeed anything proportionate to the murderous criminality contained within this speech.

Here is the text of Israel Katz’s statement, with the video published on his Twitter feed.

Citizens of Gaza, this is your last warning.

The first Sinwar ruined Gaza and the second Sinwar will destroy it completely.

The Airforce attack against Hamas terrorists was only the first step.

The rest will be significantly worse and you will pay the price.

Soon, evacuation from the fighting zones will resume.

Unless all the Israeli hostages are released and Hamas is expelled from Gaza Israel will act with forces never before seen.

Take the US President’s advice.

Return the hostages and expel Hamas and other options will be presented to you, including relocating to other places in the world for those who wish.

The alternative is utter destruction and devastation.

Let’s just be clear about this openly genocidal threat. It is not a threat addressed to a military or a political force - that is, Hamas. It is addressed to the civilian people of Gaza. Indeed, the very term ‘citizens of Gaza’ includes everyone in Gaza. It includes elderly people, adult women, adult men, and children, whether or boys or girls, and indeed babies.

It goes on the claim that the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar - killed last October - ruined Gaza and now his replacement will destroy it completely.

Well to be clear here, Hamas is responsible for its own crimes, and Israel is responsible for its own crimes, and indeed any individual or military force or state is responsible for their own crimes.

The narrative here pushed by the Israeli defence minister is ‘look what you made us do’. It is to say that every civilian slaughtered by Israel, every home or hospital or school or mosque or church or university or cafe - all of the blame for that, according to the Israeli state, is on Hamas.

This logic is intended to give Israel carte blanche to commit any crime it wants. Indeed that’s what the logic means - it doesn’t matter how many people are slaughtered by Israeli missiles, bombs, artillery, guns, whatever - Israel can say - all of that is Hamas’ fault. That logic taken to its most extreme conclusion could mean that Israel could drop a nuclear bomb on Gaza and still then claim that it’s Hamas’ fault. And that’s not an absurd thing to say, by the way, because several supporters of Israel have advocated for nuking Gaza, up to and including an Israeli minister.

This depraved logic was recently on display in Britain, when the Mail on Sunday journalist Dan Hodges declared that ‘every single death since 7 October 2023 is the responsibility of Hamas’

As I responded:

As I also pointed out:

In any case, this is a legal fiction. There is never any justification for war crimes. You cannot stand up in a court of law and defend committing crimes against civilians because of crimes committed by others.

The Israeli defence minister Israel Katz went on to say:

The Airforce attack against Hamas terrorists was only the first step. The rest will be significantly worse and you will pay the price.

What he is referring to here, of course, was the massacre on Tuesday night in which hundreds of Palestinians, many of them children, were slaughtered by the Israeli army. That this is described as an attack against Hamas terrorists, when Israel Katz knows that so many civilians were butchered, is indicative of the logic throughout this statement and indeed the statements of other Israeli leaders and officials - that Israel does not believe in a demarcation between Hamas and the civilian population.

This was one of the most barbarous single onslaughts since the genocide began, and Israel Katz is not only saying it was the first step - he’s saying what happens next will be significantly worse and ‘YOU’ will pay the price. Who does he mean by ‘YOU’? Well we know from how he opened the letter - he said, as a reminder, “the citizens of Gaza, this is your final warning.”

He is openly stating here that it will be the civilian population who will pay the price of Israel’s murderous onslaughts.

He goes on to say:

Soon, evacuation from the fighting zones will resume.

Unless all the Israeli hostages are released and Hamas is expelled from Gaza Israel will act with force never before seen.

Firstly, “evacuation from the fighting zones” means forcible displacement. Gaza’s civilians have been forcibly displaced over and over and over again. That forced displacement applies to anyone and everyone - however ill, sick, infirm, disabled, elderly. They are ordered to flee when there is nowhere safe to flee to.

He then makes clear what the ultimatum to the people of Gaza is - that is, what they must do in order to avoid being slaughtered. Which is the release of all the Israeli hostages and Hamas’ expulsion from Gaza.

What he is saying there is that the population must overthrow Hamas and force the release of Israeli hostages if they wish to survive. There is no pretence here, as anywhere else, about legality. This is straightforward collective punishment. The civilian population of Gaza is not collectively holding any hostages. This would be like justifying the murder of Israeli civilians, including children, including toddlers, including babies, unless they released thousands of Israeli captives, who are being tortured, raped, starved, deprived of medical assistance, murdered - and yes so many of them are hostages. They’ve not been charged or convicted of anything.

When he says Israel will act with force never before seen - Israel has already damaged or destroyed 93% of homes, attacked and rendered most hospitals inoperable, destroyed 80% of agricultural land, as well as slaughtered directly or indirectly vast numbers of Palestinian civilians - we have no idea how many they have killed. Gaza has already suffered apocalyptic ruin - indeed Donald Trump has declared ‘a civilisation has been wiped out’.

The Israeli defence minister is saying what comes next will be far beyond anything it has already done. What does that even mean in practise?

He finishes with:

Take the US President’s advice.

Return the hostages and expel Hamas and other options will be presented to you, including relocating to other places in the world for those who wish.

The alternative is utter destruction and devastation.

Well again, that is collective punishment, which is illegal. The best case scenario he’s offering if the Palestinian population comply is removal from their land. The idea of voluntary relocation and all these other euphemisms is a nonsense - destroying someone’s land and making their life unbearable takes away any notion of voluntary relocation.

But in any case - the foreign minister is entirely clear - the civilian population will pay the price unless the hostages are all released and Hamas is removed from Gaza. And he says what the price is - utter destruction and devastation. This is straightforwardly genocidal.

So where are all the articles in the Western media about this openly genocidal pronouncement from the Israeli politician who is in charge of the Israeli army?

The BBC has two articles which mention Israel Katz’s genocidal statement.

In the first, the statement is referred to at the very end. It says:

Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz suggested Tuesday's assault was just the beginning if Hamas didn't return the hostages.

"If all the Israeli hostages are not released and Hamas is not eliminated from Gaza - Israel will act with forces you have never seen before," Katz said.

He again said Gazans should relocate to neighbouring countries as US President Donald Trump has suggested. An idea that has been entirely rejected by Palestinians, and much of the Arab world.

It does not make clear here that he is threatened the civilian population of Gaza with “utter destruction and devastation”. It doesn’t make clear at all that the threat is aimed at civilians - you would read this and rationally conclude the threat was made to Hamas.

There’s another BBC article, headlined ‘Israel resumes ground operations in Gaza after deadly air strikes’.

In the first 9 paragraphs, what dominates are the statements of the Israeli army. It’s framed around Israeli statements and denials. And then it gets on to Katz’s statement, and reads as follows:

In a video message on Wednesday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz issued a "last warning" to the Palestinian territory calling for the return of the remaining hostages being held there.

Israel says Hamas is still holding 59 hostages, 24 of whom are believed to be alive.

Katz also repeated the call for the end of Hamas, saying if neither demands are met the alternative would be "total destruction and devastation".

Is that an accurate summary of the message which I’ve gone through, which properly reflects the gravity of this threat to civilians?

I searched the coverage on Sky News’ website: it doesn’t mention Israel Katz’s statement at all.

In the New York Times, Katz’s statement is mentioned in one story headlined ‘Israeli Ground Forces Seize Part of Gaza Corridor, Raising Pressure on Hamas’

That’s a headline the Israeli army could frankly have written themselves.

Then several paragraphs in, it says:

And unless Hamas capitulated, Israel was ready to continue ramping up pressure on the group, officials said.

Israel Katz, the Israeli defense minister, threatened Wednesday that Israel could again start ordering Palestinians to flee parts of Gaza that would become combat zones, as it frequently did before the cease-fire.

“What comes next will be much harder, and you will pay the full price,” Mr. Katz said in a video statement addressing Palestinians in Gaza.

So his genocidal statement aimed at Palestinian civilians is placed in the context of ramping up pressure on Hamas, and again the coverage does not make it clear at all that a genocidal threat has been made against the civilian population. It doesn’t even quote the threat of “utter destruction and devastation”.

I could go on, but you get the gist. The Israeli defence minister Israel Katz issued an openly, nakedly, unashamedly, transparently genocidal threat - indeed genocidal promise - directed at the civilian population of Gaza.

If we had media outlets which actually reflected the truth, they would lead with this bloodcurdling scandal. They have chosen not to: some outlets haven’t covered it, others have, but without reflecting the gravity of what the defence minister has said.

This is indicative of their approach all the way through this genocide, leaving audiences in Western states without a proper understanding of the full scale of the crime currently being committed. And this is another example of how our media outlets are complicit in genocide.