Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for Palestinian residents of Gaza to leave the besieged enclave, making way for the Israelis who could “make the desert bloom”.
Smotrich, who has been excluded from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war cabinet and discussions of day-after arrangements in Gaza, made the comments while speaking to Israeli Army Radio on Sunday.
“What needs to be done in the Gaza Strip is to encourage emigration,” he said.
“If there are 100,000 or 200,000 Arabs in Gaza and not two million Arabs, the entire discussion on the day after will be totally different,” he said.
He added that if the 2.3 million population were no longer there “growing up on the aspiration to destroy the state of Israel”, Gaza would be seen differently in Israel.
“Most of Israeli society will say: ‘Why not? It’s a nice place, let’s make the desert bloom, it doesn’t come at anyone’s expense’.”
In response, Hamas said Smotrich’s call to displace two million Palestinians and keep about 200,000 in Gaza is “a war crime accompanied by criminal aggression”.
In a statement, Hamas added that the international community and the United Nations must take action to stop Israel’s crimes and hold it accountable for what it has done to the Palestinian people.
