If you kill children in Gaza, you create more Hamas members: Musk

WASHINGTON: In a YouTube podcast interview, Elon Musk has finally spoken about the Israel-Hamas war.“How do you hope the current war in Israel and Gaza comes to an end? What path do you see that can minimise human suffering in the long term in that part of the world?” Podcaster Lex Fridman asked Elon Musk in a YouTube interview video.

Musk responded by saying that there is no easy answer but if you create more Hamas members than you kill you’ve not succeeded. It’s safe to say that if you kill somebody’s child in Gaza, you’ve made at least a few Hamas members.

“The goal of Hamas was to provoke a reaction from Israel,” said Musk. “They wanted to commit the worst atrocities that they could in order to provoke the most aggressive response possible from Israel,” he added.

Musk says the thing that should have been done is that Israel engages in the most conspicuous acts of kindness possible. “That is the actual thing that will thwart the call of Hamas”, believes Musk.

The interviewer asks him if this is a turn-the-other-cheek philosophy that Musk has, but he says that it is “appropriate” for Israel to find the Hamas members and either kill them or incarcerate them.

“That’s something that has to be done because they will keep coming otherwise,” he said. But he adds that Israel needs to do whatever it can to provide mobile hospitals and make sure that there is food, water, and medical necessities, and all these amenities should be provided in a very transparent manner so it can not be seen as a trick. Israel must show “conspicuous acts of kindness,” Musk says.

Musk adds that Israel really believes in the “whole eye-to-eye thing” but “if you are not going to just outright commit a genocide, which will and should obviously not be acceptable by anyone, then you are going to leave a lot of people alive who subsequently hate Israel”.

Then he goes on to ask, “The real question is, for every Hamas member you kill, how many did you create? And if you create more than you kill, you’ve not succeeded”. He goes on to say, “And it is safe to say that if you kill somebody’s child in Gaza, you have made at least a few Hamas members who will die just to kill an Israeli.”

Coming back to the question of achieving long-term peace, Musk says, “One has to look at this from the standpoint of a time when there are more or fewer terrorists being created”.

This is not the first time Musk has spoken in favour of Gaza. Last month, Musk announced that SpaceX’s Starlink would provide communication support in Gaza for “internationally recognised aid organisations.” This announcement led Israel’s communication minister to declare opposition to the initiative.