“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,” he said.
“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.”
Israeli tanks line up near the Gaza border.Credit: Getty Images
Smotrich, a key ally in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition, wants to continue the war until Hamas is eradicated, relocate much of Gaza’s population to other countries through what they refer to as “voluntary emigration”, and rebuild Jewish settlements that were dismantled in 2005.
His remarks came as the foreign minister of neighbouring Egypt denounced any voluntary emigration measures, saying they would have “serious repercussions for the security and stability of the region”.
“Palestinians should never be forced to leave their homeland”, Badr Abdelatty told Egypt’s Al-Ahram Weekly, the English version of the state-run Al-Ahram newspaper, published on Wednesday.
“We will not tolerate a second Nakba,” he added. Nakba is the Arabic word for the “catastrophe” and refers to the mass expulsion of about 700,000 Palestinians from what is now Israel during the 1948 war that surrounded its creation.
Displaced Palestinians flee Gaza City carrying their belongings along the coastal road toward southern Gaza.Credit: AP
Israeli bombardment has destroyed vast areas of Gaza, displaced about 90 per cent of the population and caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, with experts announcing famine in Gaza City.
The Palestinian Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, based in the occupied West Bank, said Israeli strikes on the main network lines in northern Gaza had cut off internet and telephone services on Wednesday morning. The Associated Press tried unsuccessfully to reach many people in Gaza City.
The Israeli military said it was reviewing the incident and that it does not deliberately target public communication networks.
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Children and parents among latest fatalities
More than half of the Palestinians killed in overnight Israeli strikes were in famine-stricken Gaza City, including a child and his mother who died in the Shati refugee camp, according to officials from Shifa Hospital, which received the casualties.
In central Gaza, Al-Awda Hospital said an Israeli strike hit a house in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, killing three, including a pregnant woman.
Two parents and their child were also killed when a strike hit their tent in the Muwasi area west of the city of Khan Younis, said officials from Nasser Hospital, where the bodies were brought.
The Gaza Health Ministry said multiple Israeli strikes hit the Rantisi Hospital for children in Gaza City on Tuesday night. It posted pictures on Facebook showing the damaged roof, water tanks and rubble in a hospital hallway.
Palestinians search for wood to sell or use for cooking amid the rubble of a building in Gaza City.Credit: AP
In a statement, the Israeli military said it took steps to mitigate harm to civilians and that it would continue to operate against “terrorist organisations” in Gaza.
An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military guidelines, said this week they believe there are 2000 to 3000 Hamas militants left in Gaza City, as well as tunnels used by the group.
Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad made his first public appearance on Wednesday following the Israeli strike on the militant group in Qatar this month.
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Hamad, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, appeared in a live interview on Al-Jazeera and accused the US of being a bad mediator and siding with Israel. The Hamas negotiating team and consultants were reviewing a US ceasefire proposal when “less than an hour into the meeting, we heard the explosions”, Hamad said.
Aid groups condemn offensive
A coalition of leading aid groups on Wednesday urged the international community to take stronger measures to stop Israel’s offensive on Gaza City.
The action came a day after a commission of UN experts found Israel was committing genocide in the Palestinian enclave. Israel denies the allegation.
“What we are witnessing in Gaza is not only an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, but what the UN Commission of Inquiry has now concluded is a genocide,” read the statement from the aid groups.
“States must use every available political, economic and legal tool at their disposal to intervene. Rhetoric and half measures are not enough. This moment demands decisive action.”
The message was signed by leaders of more than 20 aid organisations operating in Gaza, including the Norwegian Refugee Council, Anera and Save the Children.
AP
