He said if Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wants to help "his brothers in creed and path in Gaza", he should invite them to Antalya.
His words. Quote "let him invite them to move to Antalya. A lot of space has opened up there in the absence of Israeli tourists".
Antalya is Turkey's biggest beach resort. Israeli tourists used to fill it.
So Israel's own defence minister is mocking Turkey's tourism industry and telling it to house Gaza's population, in the same breath.
Katz also posted about Israel's security goals and said the threat from the October 7 attack cannot be allowed to return.
And this isn't a one-off jibe.
A day ago, Katz said 70% of Gaza has already been emptied out.
He said Israel's military is ready to "finish the job so that we can also implement the migration plan".
Earlier this month, he said Israel is ready to move Palestinians out of Gaza by land and by sea.
He's just waiting on the US to say where those 2 million people go.
Katz keeps calling it voluntary. He says most Palestinians want to leave.
So that's Israel's own minister putting a number on how much of Gaza is empty, and saying what he wants to happen to the rest.
UN experts and human rights groups say this could be forcible transfer under international law. They say it could be ethnic cleansing.
Right now, about 1.9 million Palestinians, that's 90% of Gaza, are displaced with no shelter.
Mike Huckabee, the US Ambassador, has denied there is any plan to force people out of Gaza against their will.
So two governments. Two completely different stories about the same plan.
The rest of this story is for Silver and Gold members.
And here's the thing about the timing.
Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data showing the Gaza Strip, with Jerusalem, Kiryat Gat and the Mediterranean coast visible from the International Space Station. File photo.Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center · Public domain
Katz made those remarks a day ago while defending himself against a right-wing rival. Israel votes on 27 October.
Now, the Turkey relationship. It was already falling apart before today.
Turkey was the first Muslim-majority country to recognise Israel.
But Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has become one of Israel's loudest critics. And Turkey lets Hamas leaders operate out of Istanbul.
A month ago it got worse. Israel bombed an airbase in northern Syria.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's Prime Minister, accused Turkey of trying to build a military base there.
Turkey hit back. It said it asked INTERPOL to put out an alert for Netanyahu, over what it called genocide.
So Katz's Antalya remark lands right on top of that.
Israel's defence minister, telling the country that accused his prime minister of genocide, to house the people of a territory Israel stands accused of clearing.
And the numbers behind all this are still huge, ceasefire or not.
Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed more than 73,700 people, Gaza's health ministry says.
The October 2023 Hamas-led attack that started the war killed 1,221 people and took 251 hostages, according to an AFP tally of Israeli figures.
Donald Trump, the US President, announced a ceasefire in October last year. It cut the violence. It didn't stop it.
1,375 Palestinians have been killed since then, Gaza's health ministry says.
And Netanyahu has already rejected the next stage of that ceasefire plan. He says there's no Israeli withdrawal from Gaza until Hamas gives up every weapon, verified.
So what don't we know?
No Turkish government response to today's remark yet. And no word on where the US thinks 2 million people should go.
Katz has now said it twice in two days, in public.
Most of Gaza is already empty. And he wants the rest of the people gone too.
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