Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has said that Israel had prepared plans to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, an act of ethnic cleansing, and was waiting for the United States (US) to decide where they could be taken.
Katz passed the remarks at a conference organised by Israeli news site Ynet and newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, where he said that Israel had made arrangements to carry out the removal. “The government is organised and prepared to get them out by sea, by air, by every way possible,” Katz confirmed.
He also argued that Gaza could not have a long-term solution without Palestinians being ethnically cleansed. “There is no real solution for Gaza in the end without this migration,” Katz said.
President of United States (US) Donald Trump proposed at the start of his second term that around two million Palestinians leave Gaza. Trump had also spoken about turning the territory, which has been devastated by Israeli’s genocide, into a luxury resort destination.
Trump later backed away from the proposal after it faced opposition, including from Egypt, which shares a border with Gaza and is the only country other than Israel to border the territory.
The proposal also faced rejection from Palestinians, who said that forcing them from their land would bring back memories of the “Nakba”, referring to the mass displacement of Palestinians during the creation of Israel in 1948.
Trump announced a Gaza ceasefire in October and presented a 20-point plan for the territory. The plan included no forced displacement.
Katz said that Trump had not abandoned the idea of moving Palestinians out of Gaza. According to Katz, the US president had put the proposal on hold while looking for countries that could receive Palestinians, with Egypt not considered an option.
He said that the plan could only move forward with US approval. Katz tied that approval to Hamas’ compliance with its responsibilities under the ceasefire.
Katz also claimed that 80 percent of Gaza’s population wanted to leave but said that Hamas was preventing them from doing so.
