Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Wednesday that the destruction in the Gaza Strip could be turned into a lucrative real estate opportunity, echoing past remarks by President Donald Trump that outraged Palestinians and their supporters and raised questions about international law.
Speaking at a real estate conference in Tel Aviv focused on the theme of urban renewal, Smotrich — a far-right minister in an Israeli government known for its right-wing political positions — said serious discussions were underway to rebuild Gaza as a business enterprise with American help.
“There’s a business plan — listen to me carefully — there’s a business plan set by the most professional people there is and is on President Trump’s table and how this thing turns into a real estate bonanza. I’m not kidding; it pays off,” he said, according to The Associated Press.
“I have started negotiations with the Americans — I say this not jokingly now — because I also demand, we paid a lot of money for this war, so we need to divide how we make a percentage on the land marketing later in Gaza. And now, no kidding, we’ve done the demolition phase, which is always the first phase of urban renewal. Now we need to build; it’s much cheaper.”
Any plans to take over the land or property left behind by displaced Palestinians would be a violation of international law, experts say.
“This plan is tied to the plan to dispel or expel the civilian population, the so-called voluntary emigration plan, and then afterwards to assume permanent control over Gaza. And this is illegal,” said Adil Haque, a law professor and expert on the law of armed conflict at Rutgers University.
Smotrich’s comments mirror remarks this year in which Trump described a possible U.S. takeover of Gaza to turn it into a “Riviera of the Middle East.” Trump did not flesh out details of that takeover plan, and there was no official reaction from the administration to the plan Smotrich described Wednesday.
But a White House official told NBC News that Trump has been supportive of reconstruction plans for Gaza, which is home to about 2 million people.
“President Trump has long promoted solutions that would help the people of Gaza rebuild,” the official said. “However, Hamas must first agree to disarm and give up rule in Gaza.”
Israeli bombs battered Gaza City on the second day of a devastating incursion into a dense urban environment that has sent thousands of Palestinians streaming south in hope of finding safer ground. A spokesperson for the Health Ministry in Gaza said more than 100 people were killed Wednesday, 80 of them in Gaza City alone.
If Smotrich’s real estate plan gains support among other officials within the Israeli government, the civilians escaping the Gaza City offensive may not have homes to go back to.
“It’s appalling that any state would seek to profit from the suffering and dispossession of a civilian population,” said Haque, the Rutgers law professor. “Killing, injuring, displacing ordinary people is one of the most serious actions that any state can take, and they should only do so when it’s absolutely necessary for some defensive purpose.”
“And so to seek instead to profit by it, to acquire territory, to sell it to others, to benefit from it is just completely unacceptable,” he said.
A United Nations commission said Tuesday that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. It called on the international community to end the campaign and punish the top officials it found responsible for inciting it.
More than 65,000 people have been killed in Gaza, a grim milestone that was reached Wednesday, according to local health officials, whose numbers are considered credible by the United Nations and other international experts.
The conflict began on Oct. 7, 2023, with the Hamas-led terrorist attack on Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and about 250 were taken hostage. The Israeli military believes about 20 of the 48 hostages still in Gaza are alive.