Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Wednesday said that the Gaza Strip was a potential real estate \u201cbonanza\u201d and that he was in talks with the United States on how to divide up the coastal enclave after the war, once again making clear his desire to transform the enclave into Israeli territory.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a real estate conference in Tel Aviv, the minister said the opportunity \u201cpays for itself,\u201d and he has \u201calready started negotiations with the Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Palestinians and much of the international community strenuously insist that the enclave must be governed by a Palestinian body after the war and reject the idea of Israeli or US occupation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said he does not intend to reestablish Israeli settlements in the Strip, while his far-right allies have talked up their vision of pushing Palestinians out and building Israeli communities on the land.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have paid a lot of money for this war. We have to see how we are dividing up the land in percentages,\u201d Smotrich said, adding that \u201cthe demolition, the first stage in the city\u2019s renewal, we have already done. Now we need to build.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added, \u201cThere is a business plan, put together by the most professional people here, that is on President Trump\u2019s desk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officials in the White House and US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
In an interview<\/a> with his Religious Zionism party\u2019s Ofek weekend newsletter last month, Smotrich said he was working to reestablish the former Israeli settlements of Ganim and Kadim in the northern West Bank, both of which were evacuated and dismantled during Israel\u2019s disengagement from Gaza in 2005, when it withdrew all of its settlers and soldiers.<\/p>\n Trump’s vision of a future Gaza – without Palestinians. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n In July, he spoke at<\/a> a Knesset conference called \u201cThe Gaza Riviera \u2013 from vision to reality,\u201d at which participants presented plans for reestablishing Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. There, he said that Gaza would become an \u201cinseparable part of the State of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n In May, he said the population of the territory would be confined to just a narrow swath of land, with the remainder of the enclave \u201ctotally destroyed.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Smotrich claimed in July that his vision has US President Donald Trump\u2019s backing. Trump in February said the US would take over Gaza, relocate its residents, and turn it into the \u201cRiviera of the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s plans have been rejected by the Palestinians, the Arab world and most of the international community, in addition to officials from both parties in the US. Trump himself has also placed less focus on such plans after his initial comments.<\/p>\n But last month, The Washington Post<\/a> reported that the proposal was apparently not quite dead. The report said the Trump administration was weighing a proposal for the postwar reconstruction of Gaza that would put the Strip under US control for a decade and pay roughly a quarter of its population to relocate, many of them permanently.<\/p>\n In addition, Smotrich on Wednesday rejected Netanyahu\u2019s statement earlier this week that Israel was facing increasing isolation and may be required to become a self-reliant economy with \u201cautarkic characteristics\u201d and a kind of \u201csuper-Sparta.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI do not agree with the prime minister\u2019s words, and I really did not like the comparison to Sparta,\u201d the finance minister said.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Trump-Gaza-video-300x225.jpg\")
<\/a>