A leaked recording has surfaced of former Israeli military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva saying the deaths of 50,000 Palestinians in Gaza were “necessary and required for future generations,” CNN reported. 

“For everything that happened on October 7, for every one person on October 7, 50 Palestinians must die,” Haliva is heard saying in audio released Friday by Israel’s Channel 12 news. “It doesn’t matter now if they are children.”

Haliva, who resigned in April 2024 over failures tied to the Hamas attack, also said “every now and then, they need a Nakba in order to feel the price.”

Nabka is the term for Israeli ethnic cleaning of Palestinians through violent displacement and suppression of their quest for recognition as a nation.

The recordings appear to come from lengthy conversations, though Channel 12 did not identify who Haliva was speaking with. He later said the comments were made in a closed forum and were “fragments of partial things.”

Hamas condemned the remarks, calling them proof of official Israeli policy.

Read more at CNN.