Israel
tells army to prepare plan for Palestinians to voluntarily leave Gaza
Order comes
after Donald Trump suggested US take over territory and resettle its residents
elsewhere
Emma
Graham-Harrison in Jerusalem
Thu 6 Feb
2025 18.45 CET
Israel’s
defence minister has ordered the military to prepare plans to allow
Palestinians “who wish to leave” Gaza to exit, after Donald Trump suggested the
US take over the territory and resettle its residents in other countries.
A Hamas
official attacked the proposal as a “declaration of intent to occupy” Gaza, as
Egypt, which Trump named as a possible destination for Palestinians, launched
an intense behind-the-scenes diplomatic campaign to block it going further.
Cairo’s
envoys warned the US and its allies that it would resist any attempts to move
Palestinians across the border, and said the plan threatened its decades-old
peace deal with Israel, a template for later regional normalisation deals.
Inside
Israel, mainstream political reactions to Trump’s comments have ranged only on
a spectrum of approval, from delighted celebration among the far right, to the
opposition leader, Benny Gantz, saying Israel had “nothing to lose” from the
proposal, and Yair Lapid describing the press conference as “good for the state
of Israel”.
Their
positions reflect popular opinion inside Israel. Eight out of 10 Jewish
Israelis support Trump’s call for the “relocation” of Palestinians from Gaza,
although only half think it is a practical proposal, according to a poll by the
Jewish People Policy Institute.
The only
strong opposition to the plan came from a handful of politicians on the far
left of Israel’s spectrum; some relatives of hostages still held in Gaza, who
said they feared the project could derail the ceasefire deal; and some
activists and journalists who echoed international warnings against ethnic
cleansing.
“If there
were a true opposition in Israel, one with a conscience, a worldview and even
some sort of plan for the future, it would’ve raised a loud warning: Don’t
drink Trump’s potion,” Gur Megiddo wrote in a column for Haaretz.
“The idea of
clearing an area of a specific ethnic group, even if it’s a bitter and ruthless
enemy, is a concept that Jews – especially the sons of Holocaust survivors like
Lapid and Gantz – must never support, no matter the circumstances.”
The
announcement by the defence minister, Israel Katz, of orders to the military to
prepare air, sea and land options for Palestinians to leave Gaza appeared more
political than practical, even if any wanted to go, because no countries have
offered to host them.
“The people
of Gaza should have the right to freedom of movement and migration,” he said in
a statement on X, although it was clear that the journeys would only be in one
direction.
Before the
war, Israel’s tight controls on movement in and out of the strip made it
difficult for Palestinians to travel internationally. Restrictions got even
tighter after the conflict began, and after Israeli troops began operating near
the Rafah crossing last May it was impossible for Palestinians to leave.
An agreement
to allow medical evacuations from Gaza was part of the ceasefire deal, and the
first group of sick children left on Saturday, although two died before they
could be taken out and others had become too sick to move.
Trump’s plan
to turn Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East” led to international outrage,
including a warning from the UN secretary general, António Guterres, that “it
is essential to avoid any form of ethnic cleansing”.
Forced or
coerced displacement is a crime against humanity, illegal under the Geneva
conventions, to which Israel and the US are signatories.
In a post on
Truth Social on Thursday, Trump said Israel would turn the Gaza Strip over to
the US after the fighting ended and that no US soldiers would be needed there.
“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 building on his controversial comments about Gaza’s future this
week. “No soldiers by the U.S. would be needed!”
Palestinians
in Gaza responded to Trump’s plans with anger and disbelief, and said they
would reject any attempt to force them out.
Many have
traumatic family memories of the Nakba, or catastrophe, of 1948, in which about
700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes in the war
surrounding Israel’s creation, a history that means they are determined to
resist further displacement.
Katz also
demanded that countries including Spain, Norway and Ireland allow Palestinians
from Gaza to “enter their territory”.
Last year
the three countries formally recognised a Palestinian state, in a move aimed at
supporting a two-state solution. Their decision prompted fury in Israel, which
ordered back its ambassadors and accused the trio of rewarding terrorism.
Spain’s
foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, was quick to reject the demand.
Palestinians who need support including urgent medical treatment would be
welcomed in Spain, but “Gaza is the land of the people of Gaza”, he said in a
radio interview. “It should be part of a future Palestinian state.”
Inside
Israel the far right embraced Trump’s comments as vindication of their
long-term call for the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza and for Jewish
settlement.
The
legislator Limor Son Har-Melech said Trump was hailed as “original and
creative” for laying out plans that had led her party leader, Itamar Ben-Gvir,
to be labelled “fascist, extremist, delusional”.
In a radio
interview she described a vision of Jewish Israeli children playing in Gaza,
Haaretz reported. Her party would only return to the coalition government,
which it left over opposition to the ceasefire deal, when “we see buses coming
out” of Gaza carrying its Palestinian residents, she added.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário