Must ‘conquer’ Gaza; no need to be afraid of the word: Israel minister
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Israel: Far-right leader and Israel’s Finance Minister Bezel Smortrich asserted that Israel should conquer the Gaza Strip and halve its Palestinian population by encouraging voluntary immigration, Agence France-Presse reported.
AFP quoted the Israel Finance Minister, "We can and must conquer the Gaza Strip, we should not be afraid of that word.”
Meanwhile, the foreign ministers of G7 countries, except the US, said on Tuesday that they will comply with their respective obligations regarding the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Bezel Smotrich was addressing an event organized by the Yesha Council, an umbrella group of Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
"There is no doubt that in Gaza -- with the encouragement of voluntary emigration -- there is here, in my opinion, a unique opportunity that is opening up with the new administration," the minister said, referring to Donald Trump's recent re-election, AFP reports.
He said that Israelcouldn create a situation in which the population of Gaza could be reduced by half in two years.
Smotrich is the leader of the ultranationalist Religious Zionism party, and he incited rows through his comments in recent months.
He had said in August this year that starving two million Gazans could be justified to free Israeli hostages the Hamas keeps in the Palestinian territory.
He also sparked international outrage after he brought a plan of voluntary transfer for Gaza’s 2.4 million population last January.
Israel had occupied the Gaza Strip in 1967 and had maintained troops and settlements till 2005.
The latest war in Gaza started on October 7 last year after Hamas initiated a lightning attack into Israeli territory, killing more than a thousand and taking some 200 people hostage. However, Israel started its invasion, which still continues in Gaza and has killed more than 44,249 people in the enclave. Most of the dead were civilians and were women and children.