Extremist Israeli national security minister Ben Gvir has been pushing for Jewish settlements in Gaza [Getty]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is open to the idea of “encouraging migration” of Palestinians from the war-battered Gaza Strip, the far-right extremist Israeli national security minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, said on Sunday.
“I am working hard to promote the encouragement of migration from Gaza with the prime minister, and I am beginning to discover some openness on the matter,” Ben Gvir said in an interview with the Israeli Army Radio.
The minister also made comments hinting that Israel had sought to seize territory in Gaza, which it had bombarded for over a year.
“Ideas like settling in Gaza are welcome; the only times we defeated our enemies were when we took territory from them. But that doesn’t satisfy me. I also want to encourage emigration [of Palestinians from Gaza]” he said.
According to Israeli media, when Ben-Gvir was pressed on what Netanyahu, who has an arrest warrant against him for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, thought about the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in Gaza, he did not give a definitive answer.
Ben-Gvir also called for intensifying the fighting and the offensive on Gaza, saying Israel was presented with a “historic opportunity” to “reoccupy Gaza” and expel Palestinians.
It was not the first time an Israeli minister or official suggested the destruction and expulsion of Palestinians or justifying the torture, abuse and starvation of the people in Gaza.
Last week, Israeli finance minister and head of the far-right Religious Zionist Party, Bezalel Smotrich, said that Israel should re-settle Gaza and half of the Palestinians there should be forced to leave within two years.
Earlier this year, he triggered international condemnation after suggesting it may be “justified and moral” to starve people in Gaza.
There has been an increased push among Israel’s far-right for the forcible transfer of Palestinians in Gaza, to pave the way for Jewish settlements.
However, the former Israeli army chief of staff Moshe Ya’alon said on Saturday that far-right Israelis seeking to resettle in Gaza were taking them down a path of ethnic cleansing and that Netanyahu was leading them to “destruction”.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 44,502 Palestinians and wounded over 105,454 others since 7 October 2023. The attacks on the enclave have levelled entire neighbourhoods and plunged the Strip into a deep humanitarian crisis.
