Revealed private chat catches Trump envoy's astonishing 'Nazi' comment

Steve Witkoff, who serves as President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, referred to Gaza’s population of 2 million people, half of whom are children, as “Nazis," Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich claimed on Thursday, Israel National News reported.

Witkoff met with Israeli officials in late January of 2025, shortly after Trump was sworn into office for his second term. As claimed by Smotrich in remarks that were captured on video, Witkoff apparently referred to Gaza’s entire population of about 2.1 million – more than a million of whom are children and teenagers under 18 – as “Nazis.”

“Bezalel, I will not let two million Nazis live next to your children along the border fence," Smotrich said, recounting Witkoff's alleged private remarks.

Witkoff’s alleged remarks mirror those of Smotrich, who in late 2023 said there were “two million Nazis in Judea and Samaria,” the term used by some Israeli officials to assert Israel’s control of Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Smotrich has also argued that it was “justified and moral” to allow Palestinians to “die of hunger” amid Israel’s aid blockade.

Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner were the White House’s key diplomats in negotiating the Gaza peace plan designed in part to end Israel’s siege on Gaza, which has killed at least 73,000 and injured more than 173,200. However, since the ceasefire was brokered, Israel has continued strikes on Gaza and killed more than 1,000 people, with Gaza’s humanitarian situation continuing to remain “catastrophic.”

In the video, Smotrich also appeared to endorse expanding Israel's borders through further land acquisitions, according to Israel National News' English translation of the original Hebrew.

“There is only one thing that hurts the enemy – land,” Smotrich said. “Anyone who messes with us will lose land forever.”