Far-right minister: Israel should fully occupy Gaza after war, rebuild settlements

Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu, of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, says Israel “should fully occupy the Gaza Strip” following the war, as he believes the Palestinians are incapable of controlling the territory without turning it into a terror hotbed.

“Anyone who is today selling the idea that [the Palestinians] can go back to running things doesn’t remember what happened on [October 7],” he tells Kan Radio.

Israel removed its forces and settlers from Gaza in 2005, and has since faced repeated attacks from the territory by terror groups. Since the start of the war, Jerusalem has refused to say what it envisions for the Strip once its goal of removing Hamas from power is achieved, though Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the Palestinian Authority can not be trusted to govern it.

Eliyahu does not say how he envisions Israeli rule either. Asked by the interviewer if Israeli authorities should be overseeing civil affairs, including all that entails, he demures, saying only that the Palestinians cannot do so.

He adds that he wants “to reestablish settlements” in the Strip, but acknowledges that “this isn’t necessarily the time for that.”

Eliyahu previously made headlines in November when he said one of Israel’s options in the war against Hamas could be to drop a nuclear bomb on Gaza — comments that were quickly disavowed by Netanyahu, who also suspended the minister from cabinet meetings.