Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich described the residents of the Gaza Strip as “Nazis,” indicating the need to restore settlement in the Strip to control it.
In a statement to Israeli Channel 14, Smotrich – the leader of the far-right Religious Zionism Party – said, “There are two million Nazis living in Gaza. It is a time bomb with an extermination mechanism towards Israel,” as he put it.
He added, “We must control Gaza for a long time, and we will not be able to do so without rebuilding the settlement.” He continued, “There must be a Jewish presence (in Gaza) for a long period, so that terrorism does not develop there.”
The minister added, “If we were not in Gaza, there would be two million Nazis who wanted to destroy us every morning. We would wake up in 10 or 15 years to a new October 7th.”
Smotrich reiterated his support for the so-called “voluntary migration” of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
It is worth noting that Israeli politicians, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Smotrich, and Knesset representative from the ruling Likud Party, Danny Danon, called in recent weeks to encourage “voluntary migration” of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, which sparked international and Arab criticism.
The Israeli Finance Minister added to Channel 14, “I am acting according to the rules of international law, and I am not expelling anyone from the house by force, but I am saying that a large part of the population of Gaza wants to get out of there.”
Smotrich was one of the most prominent opponents of the unilateral withdrawal of the Israeli army and settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
Since last October 7, Israel has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, which as of Sunday left 22,835 martyrs and 58,416 wounded, most of them children and women, massive infrastructure destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, according to Palestinian and UN sources.