One of the most controversial figures in the Netanyahu government, far-right Finance Minister Benzalel Smotrich, called on Palestinian residents of Gaza to leave the enclave to make room for Israelis who “can make the desert bloom.”

Smotrich, who has been barred from the War Council and settlement talks on the future of the Gaza Strip, echoes concerns about Israel’s intentions to empty the Palestinian enclave by evicting Palestinians from their land and repeating mass expropriations. of 1948.

“What needs to be done in the Gaza Strip is to encourage immigration,” far-right minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Israel’s military radio station. “If there are 100,000 or 200,000 Arabs in Gaza and not 2 million Arabs, the whole conversation for the next day will be completely different.”

If the 2.3 million people are no longer there “growing up seeing the destruction of the state of Israel,” Gaza will be treated differently by Israel, he said.

“Most of Israeli society will say ‘why not, it’s a nice place, let’s make the desert bloom, it’s not hurting anyone.’

Benzalel Smotrich, leader of the far-right Religious Zionist party, which is backed by Jewish settlers, has made similar comments in the past, angering the US.

Smotrich’s party, which helped Netanyahu secure a parliamentary majority to return to the prime ministership for a sixth term nearly a year ago, has seen its numbers slide since the start of the Gaza war.

Polls also show that a majority of Israelis do not support the return of Israeli settlements to the Gaza Strip after their 2005 evacuation along with the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the enclave.

The Palestinian leadership and Arab countries accuse Israel of seeking a new Nakba (catastrophe), as the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their land during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel’s founding is called.

Most of the uprooted Palestinians ended up in neighboring Arab countries, and Arab leaders say any move to expel the Palestinians will not be accepted.

Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 after 38 years of occupation, and Benjamin Netanyahu insists he has no intention of maintaining a permanent Israeli presence in the enclave. However, the Israeli leadership’s long-term plans for the Gaza Strip are uncertain.

The US and other countries have warned that Gaza should be ruled by the Palestinians.