Press Release: Veritas Press C.I.C. Author: Kamran Faqir Article Date Published: 25 Aug 2025 at 14:07 GMT Category: Middle East | Palestine-Gaza | US-Israel At War Source(s): Veritas Press C.I.C. | Multi News Agencies
Far-right ministers push for starvation tactics as Netanyahu faces U.S. pressure and famine grips Gaza.
A stormy Israeli Cabinet meeting on Sunday exposed deep fractures at the highest levels of government over the future of Operation Gideon’s Chariots II, a planned large-scale assault on Gaza City. At the centre of the controversy: Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s chilling proposal to besiege the enclave and starve civilians into submission.
“No Water, No Electricity, Let Them Die”
According to Israeli media reports, Smotrich told the meeting that Palestinians who remain in Gaza City should be given an ultimatum: evacuate or perish.
“We ordered you [to carry out] a quick operation. In my opinion, you can besiege them. Whoever doesn’t evacuate, don’t let them. No water, no electricity, let them die of hunger or surrender,” — Bezalel Smotrich, quoted by Channel 12.
The remarks triggered an explosive confrontation with IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, who dismissed the demand as militarily unrealistic.
“We are operating in other areas, in Khan Younis and Rafah,” Zamir fired back, warning that “military realities require time and careful planning.”
The exchange escalated when National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, another far-right ally of Smotrich, accused Zamir of hesitation and asked whether he was “scared of the military advocate general.” Smotrich doubled down, accusing the army of defying political orders:
“This isn’t what the political leadership ordered. You don’t want to defeat Hamas.”
Zamir responded bluntly:
“You don’t understand anything. You don’t know what a brigade or battalion is. This takes time.”
Netanyahu Silent As Trump Urges Quick Win:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior Cabinet members, including Israel Katz and Ron Dermer, refrained from intervening, according to reports. Instead, Netanyahu privately noted that U.S. pressure is mounting for a rapid conclusion to the Gaza war.
Citing Channel 12, Netanyahu and Dermer told ministers that former President Donald Trump, now back in the White House, wants “a quick and decisive operation” and does not want the war to drag on.
The Cabinet is scheduled to reconvene on Tuesday to continue discussions on the offensive and a potential hostage-prisoner exchange deal.
Operation Gideon’s Chariots II: The Gaza City Offensive.
Despite parallel ceasefire negotiations, the Israeli government last week authorised Operation Gideon’s Chariots II, mobilising 60,000 reservists for a massive ground assault. IDF forces have already entered Gaza City’s outskirts, including Sabra, Zeitoun, and parts of Jabalia, according to military sources.
Analysts warn the plan faces enormous challenges, from dense urban combat to international backlash. The Times described the strategy as a “high-risk gamble that could fail militarily and politically.”
Famine As A Weapon: Gaza On The Brink.
Smotrich’s comments come as Gaza faces an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) officially declared famine conditions in Gaza City on August 22, warning of imminent mass starvation.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, more than 62,600 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023, and nearly 90% of the population has been displaced. Aid groups report that children are dying daily from hunger and dehydration.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) condemned the siege strategy as “weaponising starvation in violation of international law”, calling it “a deliberate policy of extermination.”
International Outcry And Legal Fallout:
Israel’s hardline stance is fuelling global outrage. Jordan’s Foreign Minister warned last week that Israel is “killing the prospect of peace in the Middle East,” while UN officials urged an immediate halt to the offensive.
Meanwhile, Israel faces mounting legal jeopardy:
- The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Security Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
- The International Court of Justice (ICJ) continues hearings in a genocide case against Israel, with recent filings citing famine as evidence of genocidal intent.
Far-Right Agenda Vs. Military Realities:
Smotrich’s remarks underscore the growing influence of extremist ministers in shaping Israel’s war strategy. Both Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have long advocated mass expulsions of Palestinians and dismantling Gaza’s civil infrastructure, positions that many analysts say amount to ethnic cleansing.
But the IDF, facing the logistical nightmare of urban warfare and international scrutiny, is pushing back. Former security officials warn that political pressure for a “quick victory” could lead to a protracted quagmire and further erode Israel’s global legitimacy.
What’s Next?
As famine deepens and legal cases mount, Israel’s leadership is caught between far-right maximalism, military caution, and U.S. pressure for a fast resolution. The Cabinet’s next meeting will test whether Netanyahu reins in his ministers or doubles down on a siege strategy that could define this war as one of the darkest chapters in modern history.
In Conclusion: A War On A People, Disguised As A War On Hamas.
The Cabinet clash over Smotrich’s demand to “let them die of hunger or surrender” exposes a grim reality the world can no longer ignore: this war was never truly about Hamas. It has always been about absolute control, occupation, and the systematic erasure of the Palestinian people, the indigenous people of the land. The siege of Gaza, the starvation orders, and the flattening of entire neighbourhoods are not tactics to defeat an armed group; they are tools to destroy a nation’s ability to exist.
From the earliest days of this campaign, Israeli leadership framed its war as a mission to dismantle Hamas. But the policies on the ground tell a different story. With over 100,000 Palestinians killed, nearly 90% of the population displaced, and famine deliberately imposed as a weapon of war, the target is not an armed faction. The target is people. The objective is their removal, their extinction, their consignment to history.
What Smotrich and Ben-Gvir articulate openly, the will to starve Gaza into submission, is the ideological core of a broader project: ethnic cleansing repackaged as security doctrine. Netanyahu’s silence is amplified by Washington, European, and UK allies, who are not merely complicit but act as additional actors in this atrocity, providing diplomatic, political, and military cover that enables the campaign to proceed unimpeded. The destruction of homes, hospitals, and food systems is not collateral damage; it is the method. It is the blueprint of domination.
This exposure of Gaza’s civilian population to starvation, displacement, and destruction is not accidental; it enables Israel to further its Greater Israel project, consolidating control over Palestinian lands while normalising annexation. Just as Israel has festively seized parts of Syria and Lebanon, the current campaign lays the groundwork for further territorial grabs. Other lands, long coveted, await their turn under the guise of security and anti-Hamas operations.
International law leaves no ambiguity: deliberate starvation of civilians is a war crime, and when combined with an intent to destroy a group in whole or in part, it constitutes genocide under the 1948 Genocide Convention. The ICJ genocide case and ICC arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant are not symbolic; they are a legal recognition of what the world is witnessing in real time.
Israel is not at war with Hamas. Israel is at war with the Palestinian people, the indigenous people of the land. Gaza is not simply under siege; it is on the cusp of erasure. The question before the world is not whether this is genocide, but whether the international community will act to prevent it, or continue to serve as active enablers, standing by as an entire population is starved, bombed, and buried under the weight of history’s darkest chapter, paving the way for the expansion of a Greater Israel.
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