Extremist Israeli politicians and right-wing settlers hold Gaza annexation conference
The bodies of Palestinians killed while trying to reach aid trucks entering northern Gaza through the Zikim crossing with Israel, are brought to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on 20 July 2025
Nadav Rapaport reports in Middle East Eye on 22 July 2025:
Extremist Israeli politicians and right-wing settlers held a conference in Israel’s parliament on Tuesday where they said the US had given them the “green light” to transform the besieged Gaza Strip into a “resort town” once they had completed the ethnic cleansing of more than two million Palestinians.
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that Israel had received a “green light from the president of the United States to turn Gaza into a prosperous strip, a resort town with employment”. “We will occupy Gaza and make it an inseparable part of Israel,” Smotrich told a few dozen attendees at the event titled “The Gaza Riviera – From Vision to Reality”.
Smotrich, who also serves as a minister in the defence ministry, said that “a proposed plan to relocate Gazans [Palestinians] to other countries will serve as a means of facilitating the settlement of the strip”.
He also said that he backed the idea of a “security annexation” of northern Gaza, claiming that the Israeli military’s chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, supported the idea. “I truly believe there is a tremendous opportunity here,” he said, suggesting that Israel begin “with the northern border [area of the Strip] and establish three communities there. We are already talking about it. Some call it a ‘security annexation'”.
There was no immediate comment from the US on Smotrich’s remarks. The idea of turning Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East” was first floated by US President Donald Trump earlier this year.
The plan has been criticised by regional and international heads of state, including leaders from Spain, France and China. Despite this, the plan still has the backing of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Israel Katz and other prominent members of Israel’s Knesset.