As Israel heads into a tight election, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has unveiled a plan he says would see Palestinians leave Gaza in large numbers and resettle abroad.
Campaigning ahead of Israel’s closely fought vote, Mr Ben Gvir said the proposal would target the departure of 250,000 Palestinians from Gaza in its first year, with the rest of the roughly two million residents leaving over the following six years.
“It’s realistic,” said Mr Ben Gvir, arguing that some countries were “ready” to receive Gazans, though he did not identify them.
“We must encourage the emigration of Gaza’s inhabitants,” he said, insisting he did not view the plan as forcing Palestinians to abandon their land.
Forced displacement of civilians in occupied territory is considered a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.
A tent camp where displaced Palestinians struggle to survive in Gaza city
For Palestinians, any move that pushes people off their homes evokes the “Nakba”, or catastrophe – the mass displacement that accompanied Israel’s creation in 1948.
Mr Ben Gvir, a prominent minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition, has frequently sparked international condemnation with inflammatory remarks.
He said his right-wing populist Jewish Power party would seek “a ministry in charge of emigration” during the negotiations to form the next government, describing his proposal as “the result of a year and a half of work and… is concrete”.
In a 20-page document titled “National Work Plan for Voluntary Emigration from the Gaza Strip,” a copy of which AFP has seen, Mr Ben Gvir goes further, presenting the initiative as an answer to the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
While members of the ruling right-wing coalition have repeatedly spoken about transferring Palestinians out of Gaza, it remains unclear how far those statements would translate into policy.
The 27 October vote is expected to be close, and there is no guarantee the current governing parties will retain power afterwards.
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said yesterday that his country was ready with plans to remove Palestinians from Gaza if the United States gave its approval.
Mr Katz has for several months been advocating such a measure, framed as the voluntary emigration of Gaza’s population.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has even suggested widening the approach to Palestinians in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
US President Donald Trump, at the start of his second term, stunned much of the world by calling for all Palestinians to leave Gaza.
Mr Trump spoke of developing the Mediterranean territory, devastated by Israeli bombardment since the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas, into a luxury resort destination.
He later backed away from the idea after strong resistance, including from Egypt, the only country other than Israel that borders Gaza.
Israeli attacks have already displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s population within the enclave since the unprecedented Hamas assault on Israel, which killed 1,221 people, according to official Israeli figures.
Israel’s offensive has since claimed at least 73,470 lives in Gaza, with more than 1,330 since the ceasefire, according to the Gaza health ministry, which operates under Hamas.
Two Palestinian teenagers killed in West Bank raid
Two Palestinian teenagers were killed yesterday during an attack involving Israeli settlers and army troops in the West Bank, according to local officials and the Palestinian health ministry.
Officials said the victims were aged 16 and 19, while Palestinian news agency WAFA, reported that they died in al-Mughayyir village near Ramallah.
The Israeli military said in a statement that its forces had entered al-Mughayyir to provide security for police officers and an Israeli civilian seeking to retrieve livestock.
The attack comes amid increased violence and intimidation by Jewish settlers in the West Bank
The military said its troops fired on and struck “key instigators” of a “violent disturbance” after people threw stones at the forces. It added that the incident was under investigation.
The deaths come as settlers have stepped up violence and intimidation in the West Bank, following a siege of Qusra village by settlers in August that drew international condemnation.
Under Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the government has overseen an expansion of settlements in the West Bank, territory seized by Israel in the 1967 war.
Israel has established dozens of new settlements and settler outposts in the area.
Rights groups say the growing settler footprint on the edges of Palestinian villages is part of a broader effort to take more land from Palestinians, further reducing the territory where Palestinians seek to establish a state.
