Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has repeated his calls for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the re-establishment of Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territory in a new interview with Israel’s Channel 14 that was published on Monday.
Smotrich, who also holds a position in the Israeli Defense Ministry, said that the key to forcing Palestinians out of Gaza is to “take away their hope” and keep them in a tiny, crowded part of the Strip that will never be rebuilt.
“The biggest key to migration is: take away their hope. As long as they think that one day there will be reconstruction there, and then it will flourish again — if you annex up to the Yellow Line, and that’s ours, and then what remains is tiny, crowded, and destroyed, everyone will understand that there’s nothing to look for there. They’ll start looking for solutions for where to go,” Smotrich said.
Smotrich made similar comments in May 2025 when he was discussing an Israeli plan at the time to push all of Gaza’s civilians into a concentration camp in a tiny area in southern Gaza.
“The Gazan citizens will be concentrated in the south. They will be totally despairing, understanding that there is no hope and nothing to look for in Gaza, and will be looking for relocation to begin a new life in other places,” he said.
In the Channel 14 interview, Smotrich complained about Egypt not opening its borders to Palestinians from Gaza and said that European countries should take them in.
“Listen, if every country in Europe were willing to take 20,000–30,000 refugees from Gaza, this whole thing would be over. But they really, really love the Gazans when they’re stuck here, like a thorn in our side,” Smotrich said.
