JERUSALEM, Aug. 17 -- Israel's far-right national security minister escalated his public calls for mass killing in Gaza this week, stating on a podcast that Israeli forces should "kill 30 or 40" people nightly in the besieged territory, remarks that international lawyers say amount to explicit incitement to commit war crimes in what the United Nations and major human rights organisations have characterised as an ongoing genocide.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, who holds cabinet authority over Israeli police and border forces and carries a conviction for inciting racism dating to his teenage involvement with an outlawed nationalist movement, made the statements in the most direct terms he has yet used in public. He described Palestinians in Gaza as "no...