Israeli minister calls for 'voluntary migration' of Gazans

By Mohammad Sio

ISTANBUL (AA) - Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Sunday called for encouraging the “voluntary emigration" of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

“We need to encourage immigration from there. If there were 100,000-200,000 Arabs in the Strip and not two million, the whole conversation about the day after [the war] would be completely different,” Smotrich told Israeli Army Radio.

"They want to leave. They have been living in a ghetto for 75 years and are in need," added Smotrich, leader of the far-right Religious Zionism Party.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip from the air and ground since the Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, killing at least 21,822 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 56,451 others, according to health authorities in the enclave.

Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with 60% of the enclave's infrastructure damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2 million residents displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine.