Omer Bartov, a professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University, told Piers Morgan last Thursday that Israel’s devastation of Gaza has surpassed the destruction caused by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima during World War II. He cited alarming civilian casualty ratios not seen since the mid-20th century.
“We’ve heard that the IDF is the most moral army in the world. Even when I served in the IDF in the 1970s, it was not the most moral army in the world,” said Bartov, who was born in Israel and served during the Yom Kippur War. “But now, it’s a totally different organization.”
He elaborated on the scale of destruction:
“The statistics are that between 2 and 5% of the population have been killed, 60-70% of them civilians. A third of those killed are children. Over a thousand of those killed are children below the age of one. That’s a ratio that has not existed in the 21st century, and indeed, you have to go back to World War II for these figures. Some of the destruction in cities in Gaza is greater than the destruction of Hiroshima caused by nuclear weapons. We now have only one part of Gaza that is not completely flattened, and right now, as we speak, in Deir al-Balah, the IDF is involved in destroying it.”
Bartov added, “This is a rate of destruction that is unprecedented. In Syria, during thirteen years of civil war, about 2% of the population were killed. Israel has apparently reached that figure by the summer of 2024. So the rate is huge and the intent is quite clear, as seen from the ongoing reports coming in from Gaza.”
U.S. Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. condemned Bartov’s comments, accusing the professor of engaging in “blood libel” after Bartov claimed Israel was committing genocide against the Palestinians in a separate statement on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, more than 100 nongovernmental organizations, including Save the Children, Oxfam, Mercy Corps, Amnesty International, and Action Against Hunger, have signed a joint letter warning of what they describe as Israel’s starvation campaign against Palestinians.
