JERUSALEM — Israel has prepared plans to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip but is waiting for approval from the United States and clarity over where they would be taken, Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday, reported by AFP.
“There is no real solution for Gaza in the end without this migration,” Katz told a conference organised by Israeli news website Ynet and the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. He said Israel was ready to arrange the departure of Palestinians “by sea, by air, by every way possible”.
Katz said the proposal supported by US President Donald Trump had not been abandoned but was merely “frozen” while Washington searched for countries willing to accept Palestinians. Egypt, Gaza’s only neighbour apart from Israel, was not considered an option, he said.
Trump had previously proposed that Gaza’s roughly two million Palestinians leave the territory so it could be transformed into a luxury coastal development. The plan drew strong international opposition, especially from Egypt and Palestinians, who compared the idea with the Nakba—the mass displacement that accompanied Israel’s creation in 1948. Trump later presented a ceasefire plan that ruled out forced displacement.
Katz said US approval could come if Washington concluded that Hamas was failing to meet its obligations under the ceasefire agreement. He also claimed, without providing evidence, that 80 percent of Gaza’s residents wanted to leave but were being prevented from doing so by Hamas.
The forced displacement of civilians from occupied territory is considered a war crime under the Geneva Conventions. Israel’s military campaign has already displaced most of Gaza’s population. According to Gaza’s health ministry, Israeli attacks have killed 73,470 people, including more than 1,330 since the ceasefire. Israel disputes accusations of war crimes, while the United States has also rejected them.
