The statement comes from an audio clip that Israeli Channel 12 broadcast on Friday, reports Times of Israel.
In the clip, Haliva, who resigned from his position in April 2024 for failing to prevent Hamas' extensive attack, talks about various aspects of the war in Gaza. The exact date of the recording has not been established, but according to the TV channel, it took place in recent months.
"Necessary"
On one occasion, the former military chief says:
The fact that there are already 50,000 dead in Gaza is necessary and a requirement for future generations.
He then develops this reasoning as follows:
For everything that happened on October 7, for every person who was killed on October 7, 50 Palestinians must die. I'm not talking about revenge, but about sending a message to future generations. There's nothing else to do. They need a Nakba every now and then to understand what it costs. We have no choice when it comes to this disturbed area, he says.
Palestinians were displaced
Nakba, or al-Nakba ("The Catastrophe"), is the name of the event in 1948 when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced or forced to flee from their homes in connection with the establishment of the state of Israel.
In Hamas' attack on October 7, 2023, over 1,100 people were killed and an additional 250 were taken hostage.
In the war that followed in the aftermath of the attack, over 60,000 people in Gaza have been killed so far in Israel's constant bombardment of the strip, according to the Hamas-controlled area's health department, whose figures are often cited by UN agencies and international organizations.
