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Palestinian minors should face a death sentence if they are seen carrying arms, David Roet has said
Israeli’s ambassador to Austria, David Roet, has insisted that Palestinian teenagers in Gaza should be put to death if they are spotted carrying a weapon, according to a leaked recording that went viral on social media last week.
The secret two-minute recording, dated March 20, apparently captures a closed-door meeting Roet held with the local Jewish community in Innsbruck. In the clip, the envoy can be heard dismissing reports of civilian casualties in the Palestinian enclave, stating “if you’re believing that Israel is targeting babies intentionally, [this] is not correct.”
He then notes that “there are no uninvolved in Gaza.” “There should be a death sentence to be killed off… In war, if you hold a gun, even if you are a 16-year-old… [or] a child, a 17-year-old, [who] holds a grenade,” he adds.
"I will play golf in #Gaza whether you like it or not" – Former Consul Wiehl-Volgger during visit of Israeli Amb. Roet
"I felt sickened by the calm in Mr. Roet's voice," says the activist who took the video. "No one intervened when Roet suggested the death penalty for children." pic.twitter.com/ELEps9q6x6
— 🍉 ronnie barkan (@ronnie_barkan) March 22, 2025
Roet then warns that should the EU be “crazy enough” to invest in rebuilding Gaza, Israel would have to “destroy” it once again.
In a statement circulated on social media, the activist who recorded the meeting and whose name is unknown condemned the ambassador’s remarks, stating: “I felt sickened by the calm in Mr. Roet’s voice as he made these statements. No one intervened when he suggested the death penalty for children.”
READ MORE: Israel resumes airstrikes in Gaza
He also suggested that “this makes me think how corrupted the issue is when people with the power to change something suggest committing war crimes as a solution.”
Roet has yet to comment on the recording.
The incident comes amid escalating violence in Gaza as a ceasefire, which was declared in January and led, among other things, to the release of a number of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, expired earlier this month. On Tuesday, Israel resumed airstrikes in the enclave after accusing Hamas of sabotaging the deal.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office stated that the strikes are a response to “Hamas’s repeated refusal to release our hostages, as well as its rejection of all of the proposals” it has received from the US and other mediators. “Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” the statement read.
Israel’s campaign against Hamas in response to the October 7 attack has led to unprecedented destruction in Gaza. According to the enclave’s Health Ministry, at least 50,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the hostilities, while Israeli officials estimate the country’s losses at more than 1,700. Additionally, the UN estimates that over 13,000 children have been killed in Gaza, with thousands more injured.