From the Liveblog of
Sunday, April 6, 2025
Opposition MK claims Gaza ambulance incident a result of government rhetoric about ‘no innocents in Gaza’
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The Democrats MK Gilad Kariv claims the recent deadly IDF shooting of an ambulance convoy and what he calls the attempt to cover up the incident are the result of a culture created by senior members of the government and their supporters who repeatedly claim that there are no innocent civilians in Gaza.
Kariv’s comments are a rare example of a Jewish lawmaker weighing in on an alleged war crime in Gaza.
“The very serious ambulance incident in the southern Gaza Strip raises difficult and poignant questions. One should not automatically accept every claim in foreign media, but one certainly cannot close their eyes,” Kariv tweets.
“When government ministers, members of Knesset, former senior commanders and influential rabbis use rhetoric such as ‘no one is innocent’ and talk about exercising power without any limits, these messages seep into the IDF, leading to both difficult and unbearable consequences and attempts at a cover-up,” the left-wing opposition lawmaker says.
“The army must provide answers about what happened in this incident, take the necessary steps — despite the expected attacks and campaigns against it — and show real steps to correct ethical and operational failures,” he adds.
Kariv also weighs in on the uproar from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others over a leaked recording in which the head of the Shin Bet’s Jewish Division can be heard saying settlers “shmucks” had been arrested without evidence.
Kariv says the Shin Bet agent’s remarks are inappropriate and require clarification.
“But the attack by Netanyahu and the Knesset members of the Kahanist right will not make the severe violence of the extremist settlers disappear, given that pogroms were just carried out in several locations throughout the West Bank in the past several days,” Kariv writes.
“For years, the Israel Police and other law enforcement agencies have turned a blind eye to this violence and at times even provided it with backing,” he adds.
The Times of Israel Community.