Israel defense minister says country
Photo: Thanassis Stavrakis/AP/TT

Israel defense minister says country is ready to forcibly relocate Gaza residents

Israel continues to have far-reaching plans to forcibly transfer Gaza's population, says Defense Minister Israel Katz, without specifying where the Palestinians would be taken. There is no real solution for Gaza without such a transfer, he argues, saying the Israeli government is prepared to "get them out by sea, by air, by all possible means."

US President Donald Trump claimed last year that the US would "take over" war-torn Gaza and relocate all of its roughly two million residents to Jordan or Egypt - a proposal he later withdrew after massive international criticism. But Katz claims the proposal has not been scrapped, only put on hold.

It is discussed all the time, he says at a political conference in Israel

But for that to happen, we have to have the US on board. When will we get its approval? When it is clear that Hamas is not fulfilling its commitments.

Katz claims without evidence that the plan would “be good for everyone” and that 80 percent of Gaza’s residents want to leave the bombed strip of land but that the Islamist Hamas is preventing them.

In July, Trump's so-called peace council was reported to be preparing the construction of a "humanitarian zone" in the southern Gaza Strip. There, tens of thousands of "vetted" unarmed Palestinians would be guarded by international soldiers from a newly established so-called stabilization force, ISF, which would act on behalf of the council.

Forcible transfer or deportation of civilians is prohibited under the Geneva Convention and may constitute a war crime.

In total, according to authorities in the Gaza Strip, over 73,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Hamas' terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, when over 1,200 people were killed. Since the ceasefire came into effect in October last year, over 1,300 Palestinians have been killed.

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AuthorTT News AgencyEnglish edition by Sweden Herald, adapted for our readers
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