READ HERE: Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for the ‘total annihilation’ of the Palestinian population of Gaza within the next couple of years.

Smotrich made the calls for genocide on Tuesday while speaking at a conference organized by the Yesha Council, an umbrella group representing municipalities of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Thecradle.co reports: Smotrich said that “it is possible to create a situation where Gaza’s population will be reduced to half its current size in two years.”

“Occupying Gaza is not a dirty word,” Smotrich said. “We can occupy Gaza and thin the population by half within two years” through a strategy of encouraging “voluntary emigration.”

Participants at the conference met to strategize how to expand Jewish settlement in the West Bank and Gaza under Donald Trump’s incoming US presidential administration.