Isaac Herzog is an extreme racist who serves as co-Butcher of Gaza to Prime Minister War Criminal Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel’s president Isaac Herzog claimed in a press conference that there are no innocent civilians in Gaza, while thousands of Palestinians struggled to flee northern Gaza after Israel’s military told some 1.1 million of them to evacuate south ahead of an anticipated military operation.
“It is an entire nation out there that is responsible,” Herzog said at a press conference on Friday, October 13, the HuffPost reported on.
“It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true. They could have risen up. They could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’etat.”
International law is clear that belligerents who fail to distinguish between combatants and civilians are guilty of war crimes.
The report says that when a reporter asked Herzog to clarify whether he meant to say that since Gazans did not remove Hamas from power “that makes them, by implication, legitimate targets,” Herzog said, “No, I didn’t say that.”
However, he followed up with a telling question: “When you have a missile in your goddamn kitchen and you want to shoot it at me, am I allowed to defend myself?”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, has vowed to “destroy” the Gaza-based militant group Hamas, which is considered a terrorist group by the US, the EU, Germany and other countries, after it orchestrated a terrorist attack against Israeli civilians last weekend.
“I emphasise that this is only the beginning,” he said in a rare statement televised on Friday.
As Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza on Friday, Palestinians fled south in cars, trucks and donkey carts on the main road leading out of Gaza City.
At the same time, Israeli airstrikes on evacuating vehicles killed at least 70 people, the Hamas press office said, according to the Associated Press.
“Moving more than one million people across a densely populated war zone to a place with no food, water, or accommodation, when the entire territory of Gaza is under siege, is extremely dangerous — and in some cases, simply not possible,” UN chief Antonio Guterres said on social media.
As Israel engages in a massive air campaign ahead of an anticipated full-scale ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Friday that all citizens of Gaza are responsible for the attack Hamas perpetrated in Israel last weekend that left over 1,200 people dead.
“It is an entire nation out there that is responsible,” Herzog said at a press conference on Friday. “It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true. They could have risen up. They could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’etat.”
When a reporter asked Herzog to clarify whether he meant to say that since Gazans did not remove Hamas from power “that makes them, by implication, legitimate targets,” the Israeli president claimed, “No, I didn’t say that.”
But he then stated: “When you have a missile in your goddamn kitchen and you want to shoot it at me, am I allowed to defend myself?” ADMIN: “No, you are not allowed to defend yourself – YOU CANNOT DEFEND AN OCCUPATION – your duty is to withdraw from your occupation and remove your military blockade of Gaza.
Withdrawal is your legal duty. Ending your 54-year long blockade is your legal duty. Pursuant to U.N. Resolution 242 you must withdraw from the Palestinian territories and return to your pre-invasion borders you held in 1967.
Herzog likes to set up empty straw man arguments since he cannot win any argument on the law and human rights. Herzog has nothing but threats, violent rhetoric and lies.”
Herzog’s comments follow Israel’s announcement that it had directed the 1.1 million residents of northern Gaza to evacuate, likely ahead of a ground invasion. Israel dropped thousands of flyers over northern Gaza and left voice messages on Friday directing people to leave their homes and flee south.
Human rights groups and the United Nations denounced the evacuation order.
“The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary-general, said in a statement. “The United Nations strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation.”
“Ordering a million people in Gaza to evacuate, when there’s no safe place to go, is not an effective warning,” Clive Baldwin, senior legal advisor to Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “World leaders should speak up now before it is too late,” he added.
Fabrizio Carboni, the Near and Middle East regional director for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said in a statement that both the collective punishment of civilians by Israel and taking of hostages by Hamas are violations of international humanitarian law.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said “an entire nation out there that is responsible” for Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
“We are now in contact with Hamas and Israeli officials as part of efforts on this issue,” Carboni said in a statement. “As a neutral intermediary we stand ready to conduct humanitarian visits; facilitate communication between hostages and family members; and to facilitate any eventual release.”
In addition, a small handful of Democratic Party politicians denounced both Israel’s order to evacuate northern Gaza and Herzog’s statement of support for collective punishment.
“The mass expulsion of over 1 million people in a day is ethnic cleansing,” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said on social media.
“I get [Herzog] wanting to go after Hamas,” Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) said on social media. “But international standards must apply, protection of innocents must be respected, and unrealistic demands like moving 1.1 million people in 24 hours is ridiculous. Israel will lose public support & hurt innocent people.”
The Biden administration has refused any effort to criticize Israeli military actions. Which House officials denounced calls for de-escalation, calling some lawmakers’ comments “repugnant.”
The Israeli Defense Forces said on Thursday that it has already dropped more than 6,000 bombs on Gaza, an area twice the size of Washington, D.C., with a population of 2.2 million, half of whom are children. The bombing campaign has killed more than 1,500 people, including 500 children, and wounded more than 6,000 people so far, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
Israel also cut off all access to electricity and water in Gaza. The sole power plant in Gaza ran out of fuel on Oct. 11, leaving hospitals to run on backup generators.
So far, more than 400,000 Palestinians have been displaced inside Gaza, according to the UN. But there is nowhere to go. The only border crossing to Egypt is closed. Israel has bombed it repeatedly since the beginning of the war and Egypt refuses to admit refugees.
Herzog’s comments in support of collective punishment follow a string of dehumanizing statements from Israeli leaders following the massacre of civilians by Hamas.
“We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Oct. 9, two days after the attack.
“Human animals must be treated as such,” IDF Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian said on Oct. 10. “There will be no electricity and no water [in Gaza], there will only be destruction. You wanted hell, you will get hell.”
