The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, denied on Saturday the existence of an Israeli plan to forcibly displace Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, despite two Israeli ministers putting forward proposals to remove the residents of the Strip from it.
Huckabee said, during a visit to Palestinians with American citizenship in the occupied West Bank: “I assure you categorically that there is no plan by the Israelis to forcibly displace the residents of Gaza.”
He added that President Donald Trump's administration supports giving Palestinians the option to leave the Gaza Strip voluntarily, saying: "If people want to leave, they should have the right to do so," and described not allowing them to leave Gaza as a "disgrace."
He continued: "No one proposes forced displacement, neither the Israelis nor the Americans. And I do not know anyone who supports that."
On Thursday, the Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben Gvir, proposed a plan for 250,000 Palestinians to leave Gaza within a year, with the rest of the Strip’s population, numbering about two million people, leaving within the following six years.
His proposal came after Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz said that Israel is ready to transfer Palestinians from Gaza by land and sea, but is waiting for the United States, which he said is looking for a destination for them.
Katz said, without providing evidence, that 80 percent of Gazans want to leave, and that Hamas is preventing them from doing so.
International humanitarian law prohibits the individual or mass forcible transfer of civilians from occupied territories and may, in certain circumstances, constitute a war crime.
Most Gazans have been forced to flee within the Strip, many several times, since Israel began its military campaign in response to the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
Since the outbreak of the war, Israeli calls have been repeated to remove the Palestinians from Gaza. The latest proposals come ahead of legislative elections scheduled for late October, the first since the start of the war, in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ruling coalition are expected to face strong competition.
Trump had sparked widespread criticism at the beginning of his second presidential term last year, when he called for about two million Palestinians to leave Gaza, and suggested turning the Strip into a “Riviera of the Middle East.” He later retracted the proposal after it was widely rejected, especially by Egypt, which shares a land border with Gaza alongside Israel.
In another context, Huckabee accused the British government of anti-Semitism, in response to its Foreign Minister, Ed Miliband, criticizing the humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
Miliband, who was born to Jewish refugee parents, had posted a video clip in which he called on London to take action regarding the situation in the Strip, saying: “What is happening is horrific. People have told me about medicines that are banned from entering, and about children dying while waiting for vital life-saving equipment.”
Huckabee responded on the X platform, saying: “The British have lost their minds. Their government’s hatred of Jews knows no bounds and does not acknowledge facts.”
The Israeli Foreign Ministry accused Miliband of ignoring the facts and adopting a politically motivated position, and said that 22,500 tons of medical supplies had entered Gaza since the ceasefire was announced in October 2025.
On Sunday, the foreign ministers of eight Arab and Islamic countries condemned statements by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Defense Minister Israel Katz regarding the displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, considering that they include presenting plans and mechanisms to forcibly remove Palestinians from their land.
This came in a joint statement by the foreign ministers of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Turkey, Pakistan and Indonesia, in which they described the statements as a “flagrant violation” of the principles of international law, including international humanitarian law, and a “direct threat” to the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.
The ministers affirmed their categorical rejection of any attempts or plans aimed at displacing Palestinians, whether inside or outside the occupied Palestinian territory, and under any name or pretext.
The statement warned that converting calls for forced displacement into declared policy or practical measures could have “dangerous consequences,” and considered that these measures threaten international efforts aimed at achieving peace and stability in the region.
The ministers stressed that the Gaza Strip is an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territory, stressing the need to preserve the unity of the Palestinian territories in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
The ministers called on the international community, especially the UN Security Council, to confront any attempts to impose a new demographic or geographical reality in the occupied Palestinian territories, and to ensure respect for the rules of international law.
The American ambassador to Israel visited the town of Turmus Ayya, north of Ramallah in the center of the occupied West Bank, where a large number of its residents hold American citizenship. He said, during a press conference, that he came to listen to their “legitimate complaints.”
Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have escalated in recent months, amid repeated criticism of the Israeli authorities due to the weakness of holding their perpetrators accountable.
Huckabee avoided directly criticizing the Israeli government, but called for measures to be taken to confront the acts of violence, considering that those responsible for them represent a small minority of settlers.
Last month, Huckabee intervened after extremist settlers besieged three homes in the town of Qusra, one of which was owned by a Palestinian with American citizenship, and prevented basic supplies from reaching its residents, in an incident that prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to issue a rare condemnation of settler violence.
