Israeli settlement leaders tour Gaza, call for starvation of Palestinians

Heads of local and settlement councils in the so-called Gaza border area toured the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, meeting Israeli military officers and soldiers and making inflammatory statements calling for tighter restrictions on the enclave and continued military operations.

The settlement leaders were accompanied by Israeli Southern Command chief Major General Yaniv Asor and Gaza Division commander Brigadier General Liron Bitito.

Israeli media quoted Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi as saying after the tour: “The solution here is to keep striking Hamas all the time, and we must consider the yellow line as a starting point for the attack.”

Davidi explicitly called for the use of starvation as a weapon against Palestinians in Gaza, saying: “We must attack those launching drones and kites and eliminate the militants. This is the only way to win. Even if we have to apply pressure by preventing food from entering and imposing civil sanctions, similar to what the United States is successfully doing against Iran, we can do the same in Gaza.”

Davidi also said 3,000 settlement housing units had been sold in Sderot in just two weeks, describing this as “the real victory” and calling on the Israeli government to continue pursuing Hamas and Hezbollah “until the end”.

The settlement leaders received security briefings from senior Israeli officers on ongoing military operations inside Gaza to “protect the settlements” and deal with continuing threats along the border area.

The tour was also attended by the head of the Eshkol settlement council and the heads of the Sdot Negev and Sha’ar HaNegev councils.