Jerusalem, Dec. 5 (EFE).- Israeli ultra-nationalist National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said Thursday that he hoped United States President-elect Donald Trump would promote the entry of Jewish settlers and the emigration of the Palestinian population in Gaza.
In an interview with the Maariv podcast published Thursday, Ben Gvir said that if it were up to him, he would present Trump with “a program to encourage migration and settlements in Gaza.”
“It will also be good for the residents of Gaza who emigrate, voluntarily of course,” he said. “I think it will also do us good.”
The ongoing Israeli offensive in the northern Gaza Strip, with a siege of more than 60 days in which 3,700 people have been killed or missing and about 100,000 displaced, makes many Palestinians fear that Israel is preparing the ground for occupation.
Israel’s Housing Minister, the ultra-Orthodox Yitzchak Goldknopf, visited the area bordering the enclave last week alongside settler leaders, where he defended the construction of these Jewish colonies as a form of retaliation to the Hamas massacre on Oct. 7 last year that led to the ongoing war.
“It’s always been when we’ve taken territory from them. When we liberated — they call it ‘occupied’ I say we liberated — the territory, that’s always been the thing that punishes them most,” Ben Gvir stressed in the interview.
Trump’s return to power – he is expected to take office on Jan. 20 – has given the more extremist sections in Israel hope of advances in the occupation of the Palestinian territories.
Ben Gvir’s remarks come shortly after Donald Trump promised on social media that would have “all hell to pay” if the remaining Israeli hostages still in Gaza – 96 in total, 34 of them dead – were not released before he takes office as US president. EFE
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