{"id":54823,"date":"2025-08-28T16:38:46","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T00:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=54823"},"modified":"2025-08-28T16:43:37","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T00:43:37","slug":"smotrich-proposes-annexing-gaza-and-carrying-out-trump-ethnic-cleansing-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/28\/smotrich-proposes-annexing-gaza-and-carrying-out-trump-ethnic-cleansing-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Smotrich Proposes Annexing Gaza and Carrying Out Trump Ethnic Cleansing Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday proposed the systematic annexation of Gaza<\/a> over the coming months if Hamas keeps fighting, as well as the implementation of US President Donald Trump’s plan to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian enclave.<\/p>\n

Smotrich, who leads the far-right Religious Zionism party, announced his plan to “win in Gaza by the end of the year” during a press conference in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

Israel<\/a> “must completely hold control of the entire strip, forever,” he said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The minister explained that “an ultimatum will be presented to Hamas between two options,” surrendering, disarming, and returning all hostages kidnapped during the October 7, 2023 attack, or “gradual annexation of areas of the Gaza Strip and reduction of the enemy’s territory, and implementation of the Trump plan for voluntary emigration of the strip’s residents.”<\/p>\n

“Voluntary emigration” is widely viewed<\/a> as a euphemism for ethnic cleansing, given most Palestinians’ unwillingness to voluntarily abandon their homeland. Most Gazans are descendants of survivors of the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Palestinians during the creation of Israel in 1948. Some are actual Nakba survivors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Smotrich also called for a tightening of the siege on Gaza \u2013 which has caused the starvation of hundreds of thousands<\/a> of Palestinians \u2013 in order to “starve and dehydrate Hamas fighters to death.”<\/p>\n

The minister’s remarks followed comments last week in which he said<\/a> that “whoever doesn’t evacuate, don’t let them. No water, no electricity; they can die of hunger or surrender. This is what we want.”<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Smotrich said<\/a>: “We conquer, cleanse, and stay until Hamas is destroyed. On the way, we annihilate everything that still remains.”<\/p>\n

Last month, the Israeli Knesset hosted an annexation conference at which Smotrich declared<\/a> that “we will occupy Gaza and make it an inseparable part of Israel.”<\/p>\n

Smotrich’s annexation plan comes as the Israel Defense Forces carries out Operation Gideon’s Chariots 2<\/a>, a campaign to conquer and occupy Gaza and ethnically cleanse around 1 million Palestinians. Trump said<\/a> earlier this year that he wants to transform Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”<\/p>\n

Some critics, including the Israeli jurist Itay Epshtain, said Smotrich’s comments will surely be noticed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ)\u2014which is currently weighing a genocide case<\/a> against Israel\u2014and International Criminal Court (ICC), which last year issued arrest warrants<\/a> for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder and forced starvation.<\/p>\n

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Bezalel Smotrich, #Israel<\/a>'s Minister of Finance and Additional Minister of Defense – his role as overseer of occupied #Palestinian<\/a> territory – makes the work of the @CIJ_ICJ<\/a> and the @IntlCrimCourt<\/a> easy: a public admission of the mens rea to accompany the actus reus of war crimes,\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/GehQKF31EB<\/a><\/p>\n

— Itay Epshtain (@EpshtainItay) August 28, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n