Jerusalem, Israel - Thousands of Israelis, including far-right ministers and allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, gathered in Jerusalem on Sunday to call for the re-establishment of illegal settlements in Gaza.

Over a dozen Israeli ministers attended the conference titled Settlement Brings Security, belying any notion that it represents a fringe position among the country's elite.

"If we don't want another October 7, we need to... control the territory," said National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, alluding to the Hamas attack that triggered Israel's deadliest war yet on Palestinians.

The far-right politician said Israel should "encourage voluntary emigration" of Palestinians from Gaza, echoing past remarks that may have caused hand-wringing in the US and the wider international community, but had no material impact on Western support for Israel.

Joke of the Day Joke of the Day for May 2, 2024: Get your funny on

Others were even less shy about spelling out plans for ethnic cleansing, with Minister of Communications Shlomo Karhi insisting that the population needs to be "forced" into wanting to leave.

Several participants carried guns, while outside the convention center, vendors sold t-shirts that read: "Gaza is part of the land of Israel."

Presenting detailed maps of future settlements that would replace the strip's villages, towns, and cities, speaker after speaker declared that there would be no Palestinian state between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean Sea.

"The Oslo Accords are dead, the people of Israel live," chanted the crowd, referring to the landmark Israeli-Palestinian agreements of the 1990s that were supposed to lead to a state for Palestinians.

"The Arabs will not stay in Gaza," settler leader Daniella Weiss claimed, before explicitly saying that starvation may be needed to convince those who feel otherwise.

Israel-Gaza War Congress members urge Biden to take action to prevent "full-scale assault" on Rafah

Though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously called the resettlement of Gaza – which Israel withdrew from in 2005 before imposing a crippling blockade – "not a realistic target, he has emphatically rejected any form of Palestinian sovereignty.

The conference in Jerusalem took place just two days after the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel has a plausible genocide case to answer in Gaza, and that it must take immediate measures to prevent and punish any genocidal acts or public statements.