Israel’s far-right national security minister has set out a plan for the illegal forced expulsion of all Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, with the intention of sending them abroad.
Speaking in the run-up to close-fought Israeli elections, Itamar Ben-Gvir said the plan aimed to remove 250,000 Palestinians from Gaza in the first year, followed by the rest of its population of roughly 2 million over the next six years.
“It’s realistic,” Ben-Gvir said, claiming there were countries that were “ready” to take in Palestinians from Gaza, without naming which ones.
While the forced displacement of civilians in occupied territory is considered a war crime under the Geneva conventions, Israeli political figures have competed over the harshness of their visions for Gaza, rebuffing efforts by the US president, Donald Trump, to advance a half-baked and largely moribund ceasefire deal that has been marked by continuing Israeli attacks.
Ben-Gvir said the far-right Jewish Power party would demand “a ministry in charge of emigration” during the formation of the next government, adding that his plan was “the result of a year and a half of work and … is concrete”.
The proposal is contained in a 20-page document with the euphemistic title of “National Work Plan for Voluntary Emigration from the Gaza Strip”.
Despite the use of the word “voluntary”, the plan will be seen as coercive by the international community because of the dire conditions imposed on Gaza’s population by Israel and because of Ben-Gvir’s explicit intention: to remove Gaza’s Palestinian population.
Earlier this year, an independent UN inquiry found that Israel continued to commit genocide by deliberately targeting Palestinian children in Gaza.
Ben-Gvir’s comments follow hard on the heels of comments by Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, who said Israel was seeking the approval of the Trump administration to displace Palestinians from Gaza, which he claimed was still under discussion after being “frozen” by Trump.
Katz, at a conference hosted by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, said Israel would facilitate the emigration “by any means”, implying a policy of coercion.
Trump himself provoked international outrage at the beginning of his second term with a suggestion that all 2 million Palestinians leave Gaza and that the US redevelop the territory, a proposal he later walked back.
With elections in Israel in October, Ben-Gvir has made a series of inflammatory interventions aimed at his far-right base, including sharing footage from a site where Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks by Israeli military courts – but not Jewish extremists accused of similar crimes – are to be executed. In another video, he revelled in the mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody.
Polling suggests that Jewish Power, the party led by Ben-Gvir – who has convictions for incitement to racism and support for a terrorist organisation, and who has been put under sanctions by various countries – would gain about seven seats.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, for his part staged a visit to a military outpost in Gaza on Wednesday to insist that Israel would not withdraw from the areas of Gaza that it occupies.
“We are not withdrawing. We are staying on this line. We control 60% of the strip. And there is still more to come, because we are eliminating the terrorists who threaten us – we do this day in and day out,” he said.
According to Israel’s deputy chief of general staff, Maj Gen Tamir Yadai, the country now controls 65% of Gaza. This is far beyond the 53% agreed under the ceasefire brokered last year by Trump.
As well as pushing for the expulsion of Gaza’s population, Ben-Gvir has called for the deportation of two MPs and others “who are disloyal to the state of Israel” – including Jews – saying he would promote such a policy if he is included in the next government.
