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The Israeli Knesset hosted a conference on Tuesday in which far-right politicians and settlers openly discussed a "proposed plan" to cleanse the Gaza Strip of Palestinians and annex it for Israel.

At the conference, titled "The Gaza Riviera–from vision to reality," Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is also a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's defense ministry, said "We will occupy Gaza and make it an inseparable part of Israel."

Throughout the speech, he was met with cheers from other members of the Knesset and radical settler groups in attendance.

Smotrich claimed that Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir favors the idea of occupying part of Gaza through a so-called "security annexation."

"I truly believe there is a tremendous opportunity here," Smotrich 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'."

Smotrich described this occupation as a path to fully conquer Gaza, and spoke of "a proposed plan to relocate Gazans to other countries," which he said "will serve as a means of facilitating the settlement of the strip."

He spoke of a "green light from the president of the United States to turn Gaza into a prosperous strip, a resort town with employment," referring to U.S. President Trump's stated support for efforts to remove more than 2 million Palestinians from Gaza to turn the strip into a "resort town."

During the conference, many plans for the Jewish settlement of Gaza and the expulsion of Palestinians were presented by Knesset members and settler groups.

Daphna Liel, of Israeli news network Channel 12, reported that one plan, presented by the far-right settler group Nachala, involved the construction of over 300,000 housing units for 1.2 million Jewish settlers, who'd live there "without Gazans because they will all be expelled or emigrate, and not only voluntarily."

Daniella Weiss , the leader of Nachala, said: "The Arab Gaza chapter is over."

"And then they wonder why the world isn't convinced that Israel is there only to defend itself," Liel wrote in response.

Kariv Galid, a member of the Knesset from the Democrats—a minor center-left party in Israel—expressed shock at Smotrich's language.

"Sometimes it is appropriate to be cautious, to be meticulous, and to choose words and titles carefully. Sometimes it is necessary to say things clearly and as they are," Galid wrote on X. "The Finance Minister of the State of Israel, who also serves as an additional minister in the Defense Ministry, is calling for the commission of war crimes."

These statements are hardly new for Smotrich, who has spoken at length about the dream of conquering Gaza and evicting its people at multiple other conferences over the past two years.

But it's the first time such a conference has been held in Israel's parliament, revealing the extent to which ethnic cleansing has been assimilated into the mainstream of the nation's politics.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long insisted that Israel had no plans to resettle Gaza or to force the Palestinians out, but recent events and reporting suggest otherwise.

Last week, Barak Ravid of Axios reported on a meeting between Mossad spy chief David Barnea and White House envoy Steve Witkoff in which the two discussed the "evacuation" of Palestinians from Gaza to other countries, including Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Libya.

That news came as it was revealed that Israel had destroyed over 70% of the buildings in Gaza and that its blockade of humanitarian aid was resulting in an unprecedented wave of mass starvation and malnutrition.

The United Nations also now reports that more than 1,000 aid seekers have been killed in under two months at sites administered by the U.S.-Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

The Israeli military Sunday also issued new evacuation orders for large areas in North and South Gaza, where Palestinians were told that if they refuse they would be targeted.

The orders followed an announcement by Defense Minister Israel Katz to build what he called a "humanitarian city" on the ruins of Rafah—a camp where more than 600,000 Palestinians would be corralled with no right to leave.

Former Israeli Army Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon spoke out against these actions in a post on X on Monday.

"Evacuating all residents from their homes indiscriminately, systematically demolishing houses, and concentrating them into a small area referred to as a 'humanitarian city' for the purpose of voluntary deportation—this is a series of war crimes under international law," said Yaalon.

In Haaretz, Israeli journalist Gideon Levy described this so-called humanitarian city as "the first Israeli concentration camp." He continued:

Systematic destruction is proceeding throughout the enclave so that there is nowhere to return to other than the concentration camp...

Israel is quietly perpetrating a crime against humanity. Not a house here and a house there, no "operational necessities," but a systematic elimination of any chance of life there, while preparing the infrastructure for concentrating people in a "humanitarian" city...That is the plan for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza.

This is no longer a rolling war. One can no longer accuse Benjamin Netanyahu of waging a war with no purpose. There is a purpose to this war, and it's a criminal one.

Stephen Prager is a staff writer for Common Dreams.