Netanyahu’s Policies on Gaza Increasingly Turning Israel into ‘Laughingstock’: Ben-Gvir

Sunday, 09 February 2025 5:57 PM

Former far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir

Former Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has strongly criticized prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies on the besieged Gaza Strip, saying the regime has become "a joke and the laughingstock" across the West Asia region and other parts of the world. 

In a recent interview with local radio station Kol BaRama, the far-right politician denounced Netanyahu’s handling of the war in the blockaded Palestinian territory

"We have become the laughingstock of the Middle East, and I’m not sure we even realize it yet," Ben-Gvir was quoted as saying.

The former hawkish minister argued that Israel should never have allowed fuel and humanitarian aid into Gaza, alleging that it benefits the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement.

Ben-Gvir said he was "the only one in the cabinet" who opposed providing humanitarian aid to Gaza, claiming that his stance could have "completely changed the situation."

Criticizing Netanyahu’s response to US pressure, Ben-Gvir said, "You cannot govern solely based on external pressure.”

However, Ben-Gvir hailed US President Donald Trump's widely criticized plan to move Palestinians out of the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, saying his military will carry out the plan. 

He went on to call for an immediate implementation of what he called “a "voluntary migration program" for Palestinians in Gaza.

"We need to launch an initiative to encourage voluntary migration today. President Trump says there is time, but for Israel’s interests, we have no time to waste," he said.

European allies of the US, as well as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, China and Russia say they all commitment to a two-state solution.

In a Fox News interview, Netanyahu defended Trump’s proposal as a "correct approach" to the future of Palestinians.

He asserted that relocated Palestinians would need to what he called "disavow terrorism" to return to Gaza while emphasizing that the challenge was finding a country willing to take them in.

He did not explain how his military would carry out the plan.

Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and and his party have resigned from prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition over the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

Last week, Trump said he intends to evacuate Palestinians from Gaza and then rebuild the territory. His proposal instantly faced global condemnation, including from US allies.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Ben-Gvir said that he would not return to the cabinet "until they commit to destroying Hamas."

In January, the minister along with his entire party resigned from  Netanyahu’s ruling coalition over the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

The party called the ceasefire agreement a “capitulation to Hamas” and the renunciation of the Israeli regime’s so-called achievements since the start of the war.

Hamas says the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Netzarim Corridor is another failure for the occupying regime in achieving its declared goals in the 15-month-long genocidal war on Gaza.

Hamas in a recent statement said that Israel’s latest withdrawal from the Netzarim corridor in Gaza was a testament to the failure of its terrorist aggression objectives in the besieged territory

The resistance movement said Israeli attempts to impose a new status in Gaza through killings, starvation, and systematic destruction have failed.