This episode of Palestine This Week opens with a sobering reflection on the grim milestone of over 50,000 Palestinians killed by Israel. The week saw yet another massive assault, as Israeli forces shattered a ceasefire and ordered families to flee once again to so-called ‘safe zones’. What followed was one of the deadliest days in this war: hundreds of civilians were killed, including 200 children and 100 women, in what has been described as the largest child massacre in Israel’s history. Mouin Rabbani unpacks the scale of this humanitarian catastrophe and the international silence that continues to surround it.
As the death toll climbs, the show turns to a chilling new revelation about the mindset driving this devastation. Reports have surfaced of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissing military assessments that 1,500 targets had been hit in Gaza, demanding instead: ‘Why not 5,000?’ He went on to demand the army ‘bomb everything in Gaza’, offering a stark insight into the genocidal intent of Israeli leaders waging a war of annihilation on Palestinians. The rhetoric is reflected on the ground, with Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s only specialised cancer hospital, the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, a blatant attack on essential infrastructure under the guise of ‘targeting Hamas’. Mouin and Nasim explore what this reveals about Israel’s intentions — and the increasingly blurred line between military targets and war crimes.
The conversation takes a deeper turn as we unpack internal fractures within Israeli society, with former Supreme Court Chief Aharon Barak warning that Israel is veering toward civil war. Netanyahu is facing multiple crises — his corruption trial, public unrest, a budget crisis, and renewed protests — while continuing to de-prioritise the release of captives in favour of political survival. Meanwhile, right-wing figures like Itamar Ben-Gvir are back in government and US allies like Trump’s Middle East envoy are now pushing the blame for the ceasefire collapse squarely onto Hamas.
One of the most shocking developments this week is the Israeli government’s formal establishment of a bureau to promote the so-called ‘voluntary emigration‘ of Palestinians from Gaza. The historical irony is staggering — drawing parallels with Nazi Germany’s ‘Central Office for Jewish Emigration’. This, alongside US bombing campaign in Yemen and the UAE’s efforts to sabotage a post-war plan for Gaza, reveals the broader regional and international dynamics at play.
READ: Israeli captives in Gaza warn Israel’s bombs are endangering their lives