International • 19:31 • Modified at 19:31 'Gaza Strip completely destroyed after this war', Israeli ministers now also support Trump's proposal to relocate Palestinians Author : Fleur Nuijten Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says the Gaza Strip will be "completely destroyed" after the war against Hamas. "You have to interpret that as a very serious threat in violation of international humanitarian law," says Middle East correspondent Tara Kenkhuis.
Two months ago, Trump's plan to move Palestinians to Egypt or Jordan was announced. 'The whole world condemned that, but Israeli ministers don't care and have been saying openly since yesterday that they are in favor of such a plan,' says Kenkhuis.
Whether this will actually be implemented will largely depend on Trump's visit to the region next week, according to the Middle East correspondent. According to Kenkhuis, it also seems that the release of this news is intended to put pressure on Hamas. According to a top Hamas official, it is no longer interesting to negotiate with Israel about a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. By choosing this moment, it is possible that Hamas will indicate during the visit that it is prepared to negotiate again.
Severely weakened In the meantime, Hamas has been seriously weakened. They have lost many important people, especially at the top. 'At the same time, American intelligence services have also estimated that they have a lot of new recruits in the lower ranks .' This is due to the ongoing violence of the Israeli army, which has caused many men to rejoin Hamas in the past 1.5 years. 'But the main thing is that they are incredibly weakened, have lost many weapons and have exhausted supplies,' says Kenkhuis.
Hostages In addition, Hamas is not the one that is preventing the exchange of prisoners and hostages. For example, the previous ceasefire included the provision that all hostages, both survivors and deceased, would be returned in the next phase. 'But Israel subsequently violated that ceasefire and that is why it did not go ahead.'
Netanyahu's popularity plummets Netanyahu in particular benefits from this stalemate. 'As long as he is at war, the Israeli prime minister can continue to postpone elections and make sure that he does not call elections until he is at a popularity level where he thinks he can win the next election or avoid the legal cases against him,' Kenkhuis explains.
Read also Israel seeks to conquer more and more Gaza unless Hamas backs down At the moment, that is not yet the case. 70 percent of the Israeli population is extremely angry that the government continues to wage war in Gaza and does not prioritize the repatriation of the hostages. 'There are weekly protests for that, so his popularity is plummeting.' Netanyahu himself says that the repatriation is an important goal, but that destroying the enemy is the most important goal. According to the Middle East correspondent, that is an ambition that can be achieved strategically and tactically at the moment, 'although it has not been achieved for 1.5 years.'
The point, she says, is that the government does not see that the Palestinian resistance does not end there. 'The international consensus of an independent Palestinian state is the only way to stop the Palestinian resistance', but Netanyahu does not see that, according to Kenkhuis.
