GAZA CITY(National Times)- Israel has plans ready to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip but is waiting for the United States to figure out where to take them, the defence minister said Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere is no real solution for Gaza in the end without this migration,\u201d Defence Minister Israel Katz told a conference hosted by Israeli news site Ynet and newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Israeli government \u201cis organised and prepared to get them out \u2014 by sea, by air, by every way possible\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The US embassy referred requests for comment to the State Department in Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US President Donald Trump, at the start of his second term, stunned much of the world by calling for all two million Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump spoke of developing the Mediterranean territory, devastated by Israeli bombardment, into a luxury resort destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump walked back the idea following strong pushback including from Egypt, the only country other than Israel to border Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The proposal was also condemned by Palestinians themselves, for whom any effort to force them off their land would recall the \u201cNakba\u201d, or catastrophe \u2014 their mass displacement during Israel\u2019s creation in 1948.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Announcing a Gaza ceasefire in October, Trump laid out 20 points for the territory that included no forced displacement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Katz, known for his outspoken remarks, said that Trump had only \u201cfrozen\u201d the idea as he looks for countries to take in Palestinians, as Egypt is not an option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe plan hasn\u2019t been cancelled; it is being discussed all the time, even now, and I think there is no other solution for everyone\u2019s good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut for it to happen, we need the US. When will we get their approval? Whenever it becomes clear that Hamas is not meeting its obligations\u201d under the ceasefire, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Katz, without citing his source, said 80 per cent of people in Gaza wanted to leave but that Hamas was preventing them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Forced displacement of civilians in occupied territory is considered a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Katz\u2019s predecessor Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes, which both Israel and the United States deny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israeli attacks have already internally displaced the vast majority of Gaza\u2019s people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israel\u2019s attacks on Gaza since October 2024 have claimed 73,470 lives in Gaza, with more than 1,330 since the ceasefire, according to the Palestinian health ministry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GAZA CITY(National Times)- Israel has plans ready to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip but is waiting for the United States to figure out where to take them, the defence minister said Wednesday. \u201cThere is no real solution for Gaza in the end without this migration,\u201d Defence Minister Israel Katz told a conference hosted by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n