Israeli ministers call for Gaza resettlement, military offensive and Palestinian expulsions

Three Israeli ministers have called publicly for the resettlement of the Gaza Strip, with two advocating a renewed military offensive against Hamas and one proposing the deportation of Palestinians from the enclave. Their statements come as efforts continue to extend a fragile ceasefire that has temporarily halted Israel’s war in Gaza.

While the ceasefire framework envisions a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, some right-wing factions, including government officials, see the war as an opportunity for the occupation regime to seize the territory permanently and re-establish illegal settlements there.

These proposals have gained traction following remarks by former US President Donald Trump, who suggested that the Palestinians in Gaza should be displaced so that the US could rebuild it as a “Riviera of the Middle East”. The idea has been rejected vehemently by the Arab world and other nations, who say it amounts to ethnic cleansing.

Israeli Communications Minister, Shlomo Karhi, a member of the ruling Likud party, has openly called for the forced expulsion of Gaza’s population in a video promoting a right-wing rally. According to the Times of Israel, the rally, organised by ultranationalist groups, calls for the occupation of Gaza, the displacement of Palestinians, and the re-establishment of Jewish settlements in the territory.

“We have a historic opportunity in which the US president supports eliminating Hamas and the deportation of Gazans outside of the Gaza Strip,” said Karhi. “We have already said a year ago, ‘You force him until he says I want to.’ Occupy, deport, settle, bring total victory, God willing.”

Karhi also urged the public to attend the rally, scheduled for tomorrow evening in Jerusalem. The event is spearheaded by the ultranationalist Nachala organisation, which promotes illegal settlement expansion and outposts in the occupied West Bank. Since the early months of the war following Hamas’s 7 October, 2023, cross-border incursion, the group has also pushed for Jewish settlements to be established in Gaza.

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has also endorsed the rally, declaring in a video statement that Israel will resume military action against Hamas and take control of Gaza. “The people of Israel are coming to support and demand victory and triumph. We are not stopping halfway; we’re going back, striking the enemy, crushing Hamas, occupying the Gaza Strip, eliminating its threat to Israeli citizens, and continuing the fight until victory,” said Smotrich.

Since the war began, Nachala has organised multiple rallies advocating for Jewish settlement in Gaza, including one in January that was attended by 11 Israeli government ministers. Among them were Karhi and Smotrich, who pledged to re-establish Israeli settlements in the heart of the Gaza Strip.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November last year for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.

Moreover, a US NGO, Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) has submitted a formal request to the ICC to investigate former US President Joe Biden and his Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin for complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity through their unlimited and unquestioned support for Israel’s genocide.

READ: ‘Israel massacred 90 civilians from one family in Gaza without military necessity,’ says NGO