The United Nations rights body on Thursday voiced distress over Israeli rhetoric of a mass emigration of Gazans.

The U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk said he was "very disturbed" after comments by senior Israeli officials calling for Palestinians to leave the besieged territory.

Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir earlier Monday called for promoting "a solution to encourage the emigration of Gaza's residents" and the re-establishment of Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip.

His comments came the day after far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also called for the return of settlers to Gaza, adding that Israel should "encourage" the territory's approximately 2.4 million Palestinians to leave.

"Very disturbed by high-level Israeli officials' statements on plans to transfer civilians from Gaza to third countries," Türk wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

He added that "international law prohibits forcible transfer of protected persons within or deportation from occupied territory."

The Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not officially suggested plans to evict Gazans or to send Jewish settlers back to the territory since the outbreak of the conflict on Oct. 7.

The conflict erupted after an deadly incursion by Palestinian resistance group Hamas killed around 1,140 people in Israel.

In response, Israel launched a brutal bombardment and ground invasion that has reduced swathes of Gaza to rubble and claimed at least 22,313 lives, according to the territory's Health Ministry.

The vast majority of Gaza's residents have been forced out of their homes by nearly three months of fighting between Hamas militants and Israel.