This came in a letter signed by Weizmann Institute President Alon Han, Hebrew University President Asher Cohen, Technion President Uri Sivon, Tel Aviv University President Ariel Porat, and Open University President Leo Corrie, according to the Hebrew newspaper Israel Hayom.
The five university presidents called on Netanyahu to "solve the dire hunger situation in Gaza, which severely impacts civilians not involved in the conflict, including children and infants." They said, "Along with growing segments of the Israeli population, we are watching with shock the scenes coming from the Gaza Strip, including infants dying daily from hunger and disease."
They added: "Freeing the kidnapped (Israeli prisoners in Gaza) and limiting the harm to our soldiers are two supreme goals," adding: "But as a people who were victims of the horrific Holocaust in Europe, we also have a duty to use all means at our disposal to prevent and avert the cruel and indiscriminate harm to innocent men, women and children."
The university presidents stressed that they are "concerned by the statements of ministers and Knesset members who speak of the deliberate destruction of Gaza." They continued, "We expect you (Netanyahu) and the government to clearly and explicitly condemn these dangerous statements." They emphasized that these statements "represent a clearly immoral call to commit acts that, according to leading legal experts in the country and around the world, constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity."
"genocide"
In the same context, an Israeli writer acknowledged on Monday that Tel Aviv's "deliberate" destruction of most homes in Gaza, its transformation of Palestinians into refugees, and its starvation of them, constitute "all criteria for genocide, a continuation of the 1948 Nakba."
Israeli writer Kobi Niv published an article in the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz in which he argued that "the genocide in Gaza in 2025 is a continuation of the Nakba of 1948," when the Palestinian people were displaced from their land to establish the Jewish state.
The writer asserted that "Israel is now committing genocide in Gaza against the Palestinian people living there," adding that "it is destroying, without any operational military necessity, most of the homes of Gaza's residents, turning them into refugees and starving them as well." Niv added that "Israel is doing this deliberately, as its government ministers and media repeatedly declare, to wipe Gaza and its people off the face of the earth. These are all criteria for genocide."
He pointed out that "the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict did not begin on October 7, 2023, and that the genocide we are now committing in Gaza, and the denial of it, are part of the historical process of the Nakba that began in 1948," when Zionist gangs declared the establishment of the State of Israel on the land of historic Palestine after committing massacres and displacing some 750,000 Palestinians.
The Israeli writer added, "The goal behind the genocide in Gaza is to establish a Jewish state from the river to the sea." The slogan "from the sea to the river" symbolizes the establishment of a complete Jewish state between the Mediterranean Sea and the Euphrates River, according to the Zionist narrative, while the Palestinians use it to establish their independent state from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River.
Gaza is experiencing the worst humanitarian crisis in its history, with a severe famine intertwined with a genocidal war waged by Israel, with US support, since October 7, 2023.
Since March 2, 2025, Israel has closed all crossings with the Gaza Strip and prevented the entry of most food and medical aid, causing a famine outbreak within the Strip.
According to the latest figures from the Ministry of Health in Gaza, released Sunday morning, the death toll from famine and malnutrition has reached 133 Palestinians, including 87 children, since October 7, 2023.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has been waging a war of genocide in Gaza, including killing, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement, ignoring all international calls and orders from the International Court of Justice to halt it.
The genocide, backed by the United States, left more than 204,000 Palestinians dead and wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 9,000 missing. Hundreds of thousands were displaced, and a famine claimed the lives of many, including dozens of children.
