The Israeli Minister boasts Gaza ‘Real Estate Bonanza’, defying international reactions

The Minister of Finance of Israel, Bezalel Smotrich, said that the Gaza Strip could be a “real estate bonanza” and that it was in talks with the United States to divide the territory after the war – an idea previously condemned international.

Speaking during an event in Tel Aviv, he said that “a business plan is on President Trump’s table”.

“We have made the demolition phase … Now we have to build,” he said.

In February, Donald Trump launched plans for the United States to take “a long-term property position” on Gaza, saying that this could be the “Middle East Riviera”.

The idea would imply the forced displacement of Palestinians in the territory and would be in violation of international law.

The United States and Israel have said it would imply “voluntary” emigration. The BBC contacted the US State Department to comment on Smotrich’s remarks.

Trump’s plan – which was refused by the Palestinians, Arab states and the broader international community – seems later to have been abandoned by the White House, Trump describing it in July as “a concept that was really adopted by many people, but also some people did not love it”.

But the Washington Post reported earlier this month that a version of the idea was again under discussion and would imply that Gaza was transformed into a guardianship administered by the United States for at least a decade while it is transformed into a tourist complex and high-tech manufacturing hub.

The military campaign of Israel in Gaza, which involved mass air strikes and construction demolitions, caused generalized destruction of the territory.

The United Nations (UN) estimate that 92% of dwellings have been damaged or destroyed, 91% of schools will again require complete reconstruction or major rehabilitation and 86% of cultivated land are damaged.

The UN estimated in February that the reconstruction of the territory would cost $ 53.2 billion (46.1 billion pounds sterling) over the next 10 years.

“We paid a lot of money for this war,” said Smotrich. “So we have to divide how we make a percentage on land marketing later”.

Smotrich, leader of the religious Zionist party of Israel, is an ultra-nationalist who was sanctioned by the United Kingdom and other countries for repeated incentives of violence against the Palestinians.

He controls planning in the West Bank and has repeatedly pushed expansionist policies.

At the end of August, he unveiled an annexation proposal of about four -fifths from the territory.

He said the plan would imply “the application of Israeli sovereignty” at around 82% of the West Bank, adding that this was in accordance with the principle of “maximum land with minimum Arabs”.

Israel has built around 160 colonies sheltering 700,000 Jews since he occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem – Land Palestinians wish, with Gaza, for a hopeful future state – during the 1967 Middle East war. It is estimated that 3.3 million Palestinians live alongside them.

The colonies are illegal under international law.

Israel launched his war in Gaza in response to the attack led by Hamas against southern Israel on October 7, 2023, during which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 65,062 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since then, almost half of them, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.

This week, a United Nations commission of inquiry concluded that Israel had committed a genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza – an allegation that the Israeli government has firmly refused.