Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Sunday called for the return of Jewish settlers to the Gaza Strip after the war, arguing that its Palestinian population should be “encouraged” to emigrate to other countries, AFP reported.

“In order to have security, we need to control the territory, and to control the territory militarily in the long term, we need a civilian presence,” Smotrych said in an interview with “Army Radio”, answering a question about the possibility of restoring settlements in the Gaza Strip.

Israel evacuated its army and about 8,000 settlers from the Palestinian territory, occupied from 1967 to 2005, as part of then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s unilateral withdrawal plan.

Smotrich, leader of the ruling Religious Zionist coalition party, also believed that Israel should “encourage” the 2.4 million Palestinians in Gaza to leave the territory to settle in other countries.

“If we act strategically and encourage emigration, if there are 100,000 or 200,000 Arabs in Gaza instead of 2 million, the whole post-war discourse will be completely different,” he said.

“We will help rehabilitate these refugees in other countries in a proper and humane way in cooperation with the international community and the Arab countries around us,” he added.

He denied the existence of the Palestinian people

During a private visit to Paris in March, Smotrych denied the existence of the Palestinian people. “There are no Palestinians because there is no Palestinian people,” he said.

Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip have claimed 21,822 lives, mostly women, children and teenagers, since the war began on October 7, according to the latest figures released by the Hamas government on Sunday.

According to the latest official Israeli figures, they were carried out in response to an unprecedented attack by Hamas commandos that killed around 1,140 people in Israel, most of them civilians.