In leaked audio, ex-Israeli military intel chief justifies killing tens of thousands in Gaza -‘they need a Nakba once in a while’

In leaked comments that were aired on Channel 12, Israel’s most-watched mainstream news channel, Israel’s former head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, Maj. Gen. (res.) Aharon Haliva has become the latest member of the Israeli establishment to make the case that it is necessary that Israel carry out a genocide in Gaza. 

“The fact that there are already 50,000 killed in Gaza is necessary and required for future generations. OK, you humiliated, slaughtered, murdered – all of that is true. The price, as I already said before the war, for everything that happened on the 7thof October [is that] for every one [Israeli killed] on October 7, 50 Palestinians need to die,” Haliva says in the leak. “It doesn’t matter now [whether it’s] children, I’m not speaking from revenge, I’m speaking about it as a message for the coming generations, there is no choice – they need a Nakba once in a while in order to feel the price. There is no choice, in this crazy neighborhood”. 

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Aharon Haliva in 2022 (Photo: IDF Spokespserson’s Unit)

Fragments of survival: A Gaza woman’s chronicle of unseen loss Jerome a timer most subs

Fragments of survival: A Gaza woman’s chronicle of unseen loss

“Is this still life – or just an extended ending?”

I write these words from a tent in the al-Nasr neighbourhood of Gaza City. Me and my family – my husband, our two sons, and two daughters – came here after being displaced in mid-May from Jabalia – it was the fifth time. 

Israel has now all but erased Jabalia – a refugee camp in the far north of Gaza – from the map. Nothing remains of home – just ghosts of what used to be.

Now, we live with nylon walls that breathe dust and cold, and a ceiling that trembles with every drone that hovers overhead. There is no safety in Gaza. Just waiting for the next strike.

There is no water. No food. No electricity. Yesterday, we couldn’t find a single kilo of flour.

Two days ago, Muhammad, my husband’s nephew, was killed while searching for food. He was only 15. A child with a plastic bag in his hand and an empty stomach. He only wanted to feed his family. He said he’d be right back. But he didn’t return.

We used to see him often. Now, his absence fills the tent more than his presence ever did.

Sometimes I sit in silence and ask myself: What are we surviving for? Is this still life – or just an extended ending? I survived missiles and tanks and grief. But who am I now? I keep breathing, but I don’t feel alive. Is that still called survival?

Every night, I stare into the darkness – not to dream, but to endure. I no longer pray for miracles. I only ask for a morning where no one dies.

I think of all the pieces I lost. Places. Moments. People. Parts of myself. And I wonder – will I ever get them back? And if not, will what’s left of me be enough to build something new?

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sSumaya Yasser Saleh

Palestinian writer documenting the human cost of siege and displacement, focusing on women's voices and psychological survival

Water crisis grips Hebron after Israel chokes West Bank supply

Hebron Governorate, the largest in the occupied West Bank, has been facing an acute water crisis since May after Israeli occupation authorities cut its allocation by more than 40 percent.

The reduction has triggered daily hardship for residents, sharply increased water costs, and led to accusations of mismanagement by Palestinian authorities, with the crisis worsening in the summer heat.

Residents depend on secondary sources such as municipal and Water Authority wells and rainwater, but the main supply comes from Israel's Mekorot company under Annexe II of the Oslo II Agreement, which left control of key water sources in the occupied territories in Israeli hands.

From a neighbourhood in western Hebron, resident Radi Karameh told The New Arab's Arabic edition Al-Araby Al-Jadeed: "The water crisis affects our lives daily. Years ago, it reached us through the municipality’s lines for a fee, but as the population grew, the amount and infrastructure stayed the same, affecting distribution and causing daily problems between residents."

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