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.

The Times of Israel notes that critics of the “voluntary emigration” policy say it is a “euphemism for forced displacement – a war crime.”

Smotrich argued that the Israeli army should be responsible for managing the civilian affairs of Palestinians in Gaza under a military occupation government. The army should establish a “Civil Administration” to rule Gaza in the way it did before the 2005 disengagement plan that saw Israel withdraw its forces and Jewish settlements from the strip and instead assert its control via blockade and siege.

The Finance Minister argued that if the “encouraged migration” was successful in Gaza, it could be repeated in the West Bank, home to three million Palestinians.

The Times of Israel noted that Smotrich, who is the chairman of the Religious Zionism party, has long spoken in favor of annexing large parts of the West Bank. He declared earlier this month that US President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory offers an opportunity to see that vision through.

Regarding “voluntary emigration,” Smotrich said, “This is a possibility that opens up with the new [Trump] administration.”

“The less we talk about it, the more we can do,” he said.

“As in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank], there is an inverse relationship between declarations and statements and practice.”

He has also called for the Israeli government to allow for the collapse of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which would open the door further for direct Israeli military rule throughout the West Bank.

The Israeli army has been implementing the ‘Generals’ Plan’ since October to forcibly displace Palestinians from the entirety of northern Gaza. The plan calls for issuing forced evacuation orders to residents of Gaza’s northern towns, laying siege to the region, and then cutting off food and aid in order to starve everyone who refused or failed to leave.