Israel orders military to prepare 'voluntary departure' of Palestinians from Gaza
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has ordered his country’s army to prepare a plan allowing for the “voluntary departure of Gaza’s population”, Haaretz reports.
The order comes after US President Donald Trump’s remarks on Tuesday, which expressed strong support for the mass expulsion of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to Egypt and Jordan.
At a joint press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said that the US was looking into running Gaza for the foreseeable future, displacing Palestinians from their homeland and turning the Palestinian territory into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
His remarks have drawn a barrage of international criticism. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, among others, said that is was "essential to avoid any form of ethnic cleansing," recalling the "right of Palestinians to simply live as human beings in their own land".
Despite some attempts by top US officials to walk back on his comments, Trump doubled down on his plans on Thursday, saying that Israel would turn Gaza over to the US after the end of the fighting.
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“The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting. The Palestinians [...] would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region,” Trump said in a post on his social media network Truth Social.
“No soldiers by the US would be needed!” he added.
'Freedom to immigrate'
In Israel, Trump's comments have been met with support and satisfaction by a wide range of political figures. Netanyahu called the idea "remarkable" and said it should be "examined... and implemented".
His defence minister, seemingly working on applying Trump’s plan, said the US president would allow the resettlement of Palestinians “in the best way possible”.
“The people of Gaza must be allowed to enjoy freedom of movement and the freedom to immigrate, as is custom all around the world,” Katz said.
He said that he had "ordered the Israeli military to prepare a plan that will allow any Gazan who wishes to leave to any place in the world that will accept them".
The plan, he said, will include "exit options at land crossings as well as special arrangements for exits by sea and air".
Palestinians in Gaza are currently unable to leave the territory, which is under siege by Israel and largely destroyed by the 15-month war.
Katz added that a reconstruction plan will be put forward for a “demilitarised Gaza, devoid of threats [to Israel] in the era after Hamas - a project which will take many years to complete”.
The minister hinted that western countries that took sympathetic stances towards Palestinians during Israel’s war should host the people expulsed from Gaza.
“Countries such as Spain, Ireland, Norway and others, who have been propagating false accusations against Israel due to its [military] activity in Gaza, are obligated in accordance with the law to allow the entry of Gaza's residents into their sovereign territory,” he said.
Spain and Ireland strongly rejected Katz’ statement, reiterating their support for Palestinians to stay in their land.
“The objective must be a massive scale-up of aid into Gaza, return of basic services and a clear framework under which those displaced can return,” Ireland’s foreign ministry said in a statement emailed to Reuters.
“Any comments to the contrary are unhelpful and a source of distraction.”
Insufficient aid supplies
Palestinians in Gaza strongly rejects any resettlement plan, expressing their attachment to their land.
"I am from Gaza, my father and grandfather were from here. So they can do whatever they want, and we shall stay steadfast on our land," Gaza resident Ahmed Halasa said in an interview posted by Middle East Eye.
"We've got one option only: live or die here".
'We've got one option only: live or die here'
- Ahmed Halasa, Gaza
However, aid supplies to Gaza are insufficient to sustain the needs of the war-battered population.
With winter hitting the besieged enclave and storms ravaging people’s tents, local authorities are sending pleas for more aid while people try to rebuild their destroyed homes.
The Rafah municipality in southern Gaza has called for 40,000 additional tents and emergency shelter units for the residents of the city, which is still hosting some displaced Palestinians from other destroyed areas.
Tom Fletcher, the head of the UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA, said that over 10,000 trucks have been moved into the Gaza Strip since the ceasefire took effect two weeks ago, that is roughly 714 trucks a day.
However, Tess Ingram, communications manager for the UN agency for children, Unicef, told Al Jazeera that 600 aid trucks need to continuously enter Gaza every day to only scratch the surface of the “immense” needs in the territory.
Israel’s war on Gaza killed over 47,500 Palestinians, plus 14,200 missing and presumed dead, and destroyed much of the enclave’s civilian infrastructure, leaving people with little food and cover as temperatures drop and storms hit the region.
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