Former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert condemns Gaza war as humanitarian crisis deepens
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he believes the war in Gaza no longer has a clear goal, and it has gone too far. Olmert made the comments in an interview with ABC News' Alex Presha Wednesday.
Olmert's public criticism of his country's war comes as thousands of Palestinians are suffering from malnutrition and conditions of famine across the Gaza Strip after an 11-week blockade of humanitarian aid by the Israeli government. The distribution of aid entering the strip this week has led to chaotic scenes of people desperate for food fighting to get what they need, leaving two dead and several injured.
"We have destroyed Gaza," Olmert told ABC News about the crisis.
On Tuesday, chaos broke out at a new food distribution site in Rafah as families fought through crowds to get basic food supplies, the United Nations said. At least one person died and 47 others were hurt when shots were reportedly fired into the crowd of desperate Palestinians who were trying to get food, the UN said.
The Israeli Defense Forces fired "warning shots" in the area of the distribution site as people flooded in. The cause of death for the person who was killed is unknown.
Olmert said that while Israel had every right to fight back after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack that killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, he believes the war has gone too far. He said that while some of the thousands of people who have died in Gaza since the conflict began were terrorists who needed to be stopped, many were innocent people.
"We are now almost 18 or 19 months after the beginning of that war." Olmert said. "We have destroyed Gaza. We have killed perhaps more than 50,000 people, of which there were few with. There were terrorists, and that should have been punished by so many who were not to carry on the war."
Watch Olmert's full interview with ABC News in the video above.
Over 53,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. While statistics do not distinguish between military and non-military casualties, women and children make up tens of thousands of this number, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
"Yes, there was shooting. It's food dipped in blood," Mazen Yunis, a Gazan from Khan Younis, told ABC News outside the distribution site Tuesday. He added, "I have a 10-member family and only came back with a can of peas."
Olmert told ABC News he is angry about what some Israeli leaders have been saying about the worsening crisis. He described their comments about "starving Gaza" and treating all Palestinians like terrorists as "war crime statements." He warned that this approach puts both Palestinian civilians and the 20 Israeli hostages still in Gaza in danger.
While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said military pressure will help free the hostages, Olmert disagrees. He calls Netanyahu's claims "ridiculous" and says they don't match what is really happening.
"I think that the feeling is that Trump getting tired of the rhetoric and manipulation of Netanyahu. He should call him to Washington, as he did a few months ago, summoned him to the White House, to the Oval Office, beautiful office there, and in front of the whole world, you will tell him, Mr. Netanyahu, enough is enough," Olmert said.
Prime Minister Netanyahu quickly fired back in a video response on Wednesday, calling Olmert's statements "horrible" words that he said feed into lies about Israel and the Israel Defense Forces.
