“For every Hamas member you kill, how many did you create? And if you create more than you kill, you’ve not succeeded.”

The goal of the Palestinian militant group was to “provoke an overreaction” by Israel by committing atrocities and then “leverage that aggressive response to rally Muslims worldwide for the cause of Gaza and Palestine, which they have succeeded in doing.”

“The counterintuitive thing that should be done here, even though it is very difficult, is that I recommend Israel do the most conspicuous acts of kindness possible,” Musk told Fridman in the podcast interview.

Providing healthcare, food and other relief to civilians while still targeting Hamas leaders and operatives, would thwart the group’s goal and “ultimately fights the broader force of hatred in the region,” the billionaire argued.

“If you do not resort to total genocide, that is, to the complete slaughter of the entire people… which is unacceptable, no matter how you look at it… Then you will have to leave a certain number of people alive, and they will hate Israel! Thus, the question should be posed like this: having killed so many Hamas militants, how many new ones have you created? And if it turns out that you created more than you killed, then you have failed. And this is exactly the situation there. That is… by killing one child in Gaza, you have thereby spawned several new Hamas militants, who will then die just to kill an Israeli.”