Profiting from blood: Israeli minister calls Gaza destruction ‘real estate bonanza’

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right figure in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, has claimed that Gaza is being transformed into a real estate bonanza with American assistance, contending that Israel had paid dearly for the war and should now profit from the destruction that has left vast swathes of the territory in ruins.

He echoed former United States President Donald Trump’s earlier vision of remaking the enclave into a “Riviera of the Middle East”, an idea that provoked widespread condemnation from the Arab world and the United Nations, with scant regard for international law that forbids any attempt to annex occupied territory.

Speaking at a real estate conference in Tel Aviv on the theme of urban renewal, Smotrich described the devastation in Gaza as the preliminary stage of redevelopment and said that discussions were already underway with American counterparts on a business-oriented reconstruction plan.

He suggested that Israel’s financial and military outlay entitled it to secure a share of future profits through the marketing of land, portraying the war not only as a military campaign but as an investment whose dividends could be realised once the civilian population had been displaced.

His remarks echoed the language once used by Trump, who earlier this year invoked the prospect of turning Gaza into a regional leisure and investment hub. Though Trump never spelt out any detailed programme, his comments were interpreted as implying a form of takeover that met with strong opposition across Arab states and from international observers.

The Biden administration has not formally endorsed Smotrich’s description of events, but officials have suggested that Trump has long supported reconstruction initiatives for Gaza, albeit on the condition that Hamas relinquish power and disarm.

Legal specialists have argued that any scheme to assume control over land or property vacated by Palestinians would constitute a breach of international law. They warn that linking urban renewal projects with forced displacement amounts to profiting from conflict and would confirm fears that Israel’s objective is the permanent retention of Gaza rather than temporary military control.

For such experts, the portrayal of war damage as a commercial opportunity undermines the fundamental rules designed to protect civilian populations in times of conflict.

The timing of Smotrich’s statements coincided with the latest escalation of Israel’s assault on Gaza City, where heavy bombardments killed more than a hundred people in a single day, according to the enclave’s health authorities. The majority of the dead were reported in the city itself, while thousands of residents fled southwards in search of safety, despite warnings from humanitarian organisations that no part of the enclave could be regarded as secure.

The overall death toll in Gaza has now exceeded 65,000, a figure accepted by the United Nations and international monitoring bodies as broadly reliable, and described by aid groups as evidence of the catastrophic human cost of the conflict. A UN commission this week accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians, urging the international community to halt the campaign and to prosecute those leaders it holds responsible for incitement and execution.