Senior ministers call for resettling Gaza, expelling Palestinians, return to war
Communications Minister Karhi says ‘historic opportunity’ with Trump in White House; Smotrich urges ‘fight until victory;’ Transportation Minister Regev: ‘Take back the territory’
Three senior ministers on Tuesday publicly called for resettling the Gaza Strip, with two urging a return to war with Hamas and one demanding that residents of the Palestinian territory be deported.
Their declarations came amid a push to continue a complex ceasefire that paused a war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza that was started by the Palestinian terror group when it led a massive invasion of southern Israel.
Though the ceasefire envisions full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, some right-wing movements, including members of the government, see the war as an opportunity to permanently conquer the Palestinian territory and settle Israeli communities there, as they once were in the past.
Those ideas have been vitalized by remarks from US President Donald Trump who called for emptying war-ravaged Gaza of its residents so that the US can rebuild it as a “riviera.”
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi of the ruling Likud party called for the forced expulsion of the Gazan population in a video promoting a right-wing rally by ultranationalist groups for the occupation of the Gaza Strip, the expulsion of the Palestinian population and the re-establishment of Jewish settlements in the territory.
“We have a historic opportunity in which the US president supports eliminating Hamas and the deportation of Gazans outside of the Gaza Strip,” Karhi said.
“We have already said a year ago ‘You force him until he says I want to.’ Occupy, deport, settle, bring total victory, God willing,” said the cabinet minister, and called on the public to attend the event.
The rally, scheduled for Thursday evening in Jerusalem, is organized by the ultranationalist Nachala organization, which promotes the construction of settlements and illegal outposts in the West Bank and, since the early months of the war following Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, the establishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza as well.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also backed the rally in his own video, saying Israel will renew its war against Hamas and occupy Gaza.
“The people of Israel are coming to support and demand victory and triumph, we are not stopping midway, we’re going back, striking the enemy, smashing Hamas, occupying the Gaza Strip, removing its threat to Israeli citizens, returning to fight, until victory,” said the finance minister.
Nachala has held several such rallies since the start of the war including one last January that was attended by 11 government ministers, including Karhi and Smotrich, who pledged to rebuild Jewish Israeli settlements in the heart of the Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, Transportation Minister Miri Regev said that Israel should rebuild settlements in Gaza that it evacuated in 2005 as part of its unilateral withdrawal from the enclave.
“The time has come to take back what the Sharon government gave as a gift to Hamas,” Regev said referring to former prime minister Ariel Sharon who carried out the withdrawal. Regev at the time was the IDF spokesperson, presenting the military’s position as soldiers were ordered to clear out the settlements. In emotionally charged scenes, young soldiers were in some cases required to pull settlers from their homes to complete the withdrawal.
The Western-backed Palestinian Authority took over control of Gaza but was then ousted by Hamas in 2007 which has ruled it ever since.
Speaking at the B’Sheva Group Jerusalem Conference, Regev said that Israel’s goals for the war should be updated to include “first, returning the territories that were handed over.”
“There is no such thing as land for peace,” she continued. “What peace did we get? There is no such term. Peace for peace.”
Regev, who like Karhi is a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, claimed that the Trump administration is pushing ahead with its plans for “emigration” from Gaza.
“Everyone sees that Hamas is a terror group whose aim is to murder, they won’t remain there and Gaza will look different,” she said.
If Hamas doesn’t agree to disarm and give up control of Gaza, Israel will return to war, Regev said.
The three-stage ceasefire agreement, reached last month, halted some 15 months of fighting triggered by the group’s October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel, when Hamas-led terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
The deal requires Hamas to release all the hostages, Israel to release thousands of Palestinian security prisoners — including hundreds serving life sentences — and a halt to fighting in the Strip, followed by negotiations for a “sustainable calm” and IDF withdrawal from the enclave.
However, as the first stage of the plan draws to an end, the ceasefire has run into snags amid mutual accusations from both sides — its future is uncertain.
Though talks for the second stage are reportedly ongoing Netanyahu faces pressure from his right-wing government– led by Smotrich — to instead resume the fight against Hamas. Smotrich has threatened his Religious Zionism party would ditch the government if his demand is not met.
In the meantime, a back-up clause allows the first stage of the ceasefire to continue alongside talks for the following phases. The first stage has seen Hamas release living and dead hostages in small batches as Israel releases hundreds of security prisoners.
Regev indicated that the government would seek that path, saying that “there is a desire to extend the first phase to bring back as many hostages as possible.”
Washington has stressed it wants to see the ceasefire completed, but the US special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who was involved in mediating the plan, has also said he is looking to continue the first stage.
