Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has once again called for occupying the Gaza Strip and encouraging half of its 2.2 million residents to emigrate within two years, raising concerns about the existence of a real plan for this.

Speaking at a conference organized by the Yesha Council, an organization representing Israeli settlement municipalities in the West Bank, Smotrich said: “We can occupy Gaza and reduce its population by half in two years, through a strategy of encouraging voluntary emigration.” He added: “It is possible to create such a situation… It would not cost a lot of money, and even if it is expensive, we should not be afraid to pay the price.”

Smotrich’s demands to occupy Gaza are not new, but they reinforce many concerns that these repeated demands reflect undeclared goals for the current war in Gaza, including a long-term occupation, military rule, and the resumption of settlement activity there. Although the declared goals of the war remain the same: “eliminating Hamas” and “recovering the captives,” what is happening in Tel Aviv and the Gaza Strip itself does not support this, and points to other goals. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is refraining from laying out a plan for the day after in the Gaza Strip, and Israel is working in Gaza to deepen its control by expanding the axes and establishing what resemble permanent “military sites.”

Israel appears to be planning not only military rule, which has become somewhat apparent, but also to resume settlement there, which would be a more controversial move if it happened.

The bloody military operation in the northern Gaza Strip, which involves displacing Palestinians under fire and isolating part of the north from the rest of the divided Gaza Strip, raises fears that the army is preparing the ground for the return of settlers.

Earlier last week, at the height of the orchestrated Israeli offensive, Israeli soldiers in Gaza helped a settler leadership enter the Strip to survey potential sites for Jewish settlements without getting permission from their leaders.

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority said at the time that Daniela Weiss, who is leading the efforts to re-settle northern Gaza, had toured the Israeli side of the Gaza border fence. She and her group had crossed the border, through unclear means, and walked a short distance inside the Strip, stressing that she intended to take advantage of the military presence in Gaza to gradually settle Jews there.

There is a direct link between the displacement of Palestinians and the establishment of new settlements in Gaza. Israel had 21 settlements in Gaza, all of which were dismantled under the 2005 disengagement plan, which also led to the withdrawal of the Israeli army from the Strip.

Smotrich’s statements make it clear that he is budgeting for the occupation of Gaza. “Occupation of Gaza is not a dirty word,” Smotrich said. “If the cost of security control (of the Strip) is 5 billion shekels ($1.37 billion), I will accept it with open arms. If that is what is needed to ensure Israel’s security, so be it.”

Smotrich was responding to concerns raised by the Israeli security establishment and the Treasury Department about the massive consequences that the occupation of Gaza could have on the Israeli economy.

Smotrich insisted that the only way to defeat Hamas was to replace its rule in Gaza, and that Israel was the only party capable of doing so, even if it meant assigning the Israeli military to manage the civilian affairs of the Palestinians in Gaza.

Smotrich claimed that once the “encouraging immigration” policy had proven successful in Gaza, it could be replicated in the West Bank, where 3 million Palestinians live.

The head of the Religious Zionism party has long called for annexing large parts of the West Bank, and earlier this month declared that the victory of US President-elect Donald Trump in the elections provided an opportunity to realize this vision.

Smotrich was one of several government ministers who attended an event last month calling for the reestablishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza. Smotrich said ahead of the conference that territory Israel had previously ceded had become “Iranian terror outposts” and put the country at risk.

But can Smotrich reoccupy and settle Gaza? For many, yes. Others believe he can’t, and that it will likely depend on how the war in the Strip ends. Writing in The Times of Israel, Eran Hildesheim accused Smotrich of trying to sell the public a new narrative, in which if Israel achieves its goals in the war and defeats its enemies, peace and security will return to the region.

“On the surface, this narrative seems logical, but in reality it is an empty slogan,” Hildesheim said. “It seems that this narrative is primarily intended to prepare public opinion for the continuation of the war, while at the same time promoting the vision of settlement in the Gaza Strip, which is the central goal of Smotrich and his supporters. But history tells a completely different story.”

“History shows that prolonged wars exact a heavy economic price from Israel and do not contribute to growth,” he added. “The end of the war, as Smotrich presents it, means taking over large areas of the Gaza Strip. In the first stage, the minister is pushing for the army to distribute food to the population. After this step is accepted by the public, Smotrich plans to move to the next stage: implementing full military rule in the Strip and directly managing the lives of the Palestinian population. The ultimate goal of this grand plan is to resettle the Gaza Strip.”

The writer believed that “Smotrich’s vision places an unbearable financial burden on Israel,” noting that estimates of an additional cost amount to about 20 billion shekels annually, an amount that the state does not have, without taking into account the costs of rebuilding the Strip and the heavy price of soldiers’ lives. Israel will be forced to adopt the “economy with God’s help” plan to get out of this situation safely.

The writer spoke about external threats more important than Hamas, such as Iran, and internal threats represented by the threat that undermines the “national resilience” more than any enemy. He said: “Smotrich’s claim that victory will bring security, and security will lead to growth, ignores the complex reality,” and the fact that economic and social security is not achieved through endless wars and military rule, but through regional stability. He added: “But all of these things contradict Smotrich’s main goal, which is to settle the Gaza Strip; therefore, he can only continue to sell illusions to the public.”