JERUSALEM, Jan  1, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - An Israeli minister on Monday called
for the return of Jewish settlers to Gaza and said Palestinians should be
encouraged to emigrate, a day after similar remarks by another far-right
politician.

"We must promote a solution to encourage the emigration of Gaza's
residents," Israel's firebrand National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said
as war with the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers rages on.

Israel unilaterally withdrew the last of its troops and settlers in 2005,
ending a presence inside Gaza that began in 1967 but maintaining near complete
control over the territory's borders.

The government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not officially
suggested it has any plans to evict Gazans or to send Jewish settlers back to
the territory since the current war broke out on October 7.

But Ben Gvir argued that the departure of Palestinians and re-establishment
of Israeli settlements "is a correct, just, moral and humane solution".

"This is an opportunity to develop a project to encourage Gaza's residents
to emigrate to countries around the world," he told a meeting of his
ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit, or "Jewish Power", party.

Hamas dismissed Ben Gvir's proposal as a "daydream".

"You will not find a way to implement it in the face of our resilient,
steadfast Palestinian people and their heroic resistance," the Islamist group
said in a statement.

Ben Gvir's comment came the day after far-right Finance Minister Bezalel
Smotrich also called for the return of settlers to Gaza, equally saying Israel
should "encourage" the territory's approximately 2.4 million Palestinians to
leave.

Smotrich said that for Israel to "control the territory militarily for a
long time, we need a civilian presence".

Both Ben Gvir and Smotrich live in settlements in the occupied West Bank,
considered illegal under international law.

Hamas on Sunday had also condemned Smotrich's comments as a "vile mockery
and a war crime".

The October 7 Hamas attack left about 1,140 people dead in Israel, mostly
civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.

Israel's ongoing offensive, aimed at destroying Hamas, has killed at least
21,978 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health
ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

With heavy combat raging on, 85 percent of people in the besieged Gaza
Strip have been internally displaced, according to the United Nations.