Smotrich: Gaza will be 'entirely destroyed' before its people depart
Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has said victory in Gaza means that the Palestinian territory will be “entirely destroyed” before its people depart for other countries.
Smotrich said on Monday that Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet has decided to expand the war to occupy Gaza.
He said it does not matter if the captives are released because Israel has no intention to withdraw from the territory.
“We are finally going to occupy the Gaza Strip. We will stop being afraid of the word ‘occupation,’” he said.
Israel has decided to change its war plan in Gaza. It intends to replace raid-based attacks with full-scale war and permanent occupation of northern Gaza.
It has aimed to force the people of Gaza to the southern part of the enclave or other countries based on the plan proposed by US President Donald Trump.
“Gaza will be entirely destroyed, civilians will be sent to… the south to a humanitarian zone without Hamas … and from there they will start to leave in great numbers to third countries,” Smotrich said.
However, the plan is extremely unpopular among Israelis who fear that any expansion of the war will result in the death of the captives.
The UN and other international organizations have said the expansion of the war and the displacement of the people of Gaza into other countries is a clear example of human rights violations.
A group dedicated to the exchange of captives has denounced the new offensive and described it as the “Smotrich-Netanyahu plan.”
Furthermore, the chief of the general staff of the Israeli forces, Eyal Zamir, has warned that the scheme could endanger the lives of the remaining captives in Gaza.
“Keep in mind – as part of a broad maneuver, we could lose the [captives],” Zamir has been quoted as saying to Netanyahu.
The Forum has emphasized Zamir’s warning and has asked the Israelis to put pressure on Netanyahu’s cabinet to reach an agreement with Hamas instead of escalating its genocidal attacks on Gaza.
The Gaza Ministry of Health has said that since March 18, when the Israeli regime violated the ceasefire agreement and resumed attacks on Gaza, 2,239 Palestinians have been killed and 6,325 others injured.
The number of Palestinians who have been killed by the occupying entity since October 7, 2023, stands at 52,945 dead and 118,366 injured, most of whom are children and women.
