Israeli minister proposes expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza

Israel's Minister of National Security, the extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir, presented on Thursday (3) a plan to expel all Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and send them abroad.

Ben-Gvir, from the far-right Jewish Power party, proposed the expulsion of 250,000 Palestinians from Gaza in one year, in a project with a strong electoral character. There will be a general election in Israel on October 27th.

The terrorist group Hamas, in turn, asked this Friday (4) that Arab and Muslim countries oppose the proposal, classifying the initiative as an attempt to forcefully displace the territory's population.

The approximately 2 million remaining inhabitants of the war-torn territory would leave Gaza over the next six years.

"It's realistic," said the minister, a member of the governing coalition and often criticized abroad.

"We have to encourage the emigration of Gazans," added Ben-Gvir, who stated that, in his opinion, the plan does not mean forcing Palestinians to abandon their lands.

He also said that several countries were "willing" to welcome Gazans, but did not specify which ones.

The forced displacement of civilians from occupied territory is considered a war crime under the Geneva Convention.

For Palestinians, any attempt to expel them from their lands leads to the "Nakba", a term that means catastrophe and describes the exodus of 1948, after the founding of the State of Israel.

Ben-Gvir is a key ally in Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's fragile coalition of the right-wing Likud party, but his comments have already provoked international condemnation.

In August, the minister said that Israel should kill "30 or 40" people every night in Gaza, which provoked condemnation from the UN and countries such as France and Germany.

The October 27 elections are seen as very close, and it is unclear whether the parties currently in government will remain in power.

Defense Minister Israel Katz of Likud said the government has plans to move Palestinians from Gaza, but is awaiting a decision from the United States on where to take them.

At the beginning of the week, Ben-Gvir published a video made by artificial intelligence commemorating the hunger that Palestinian prisoners go through in the Israeli prison system, which he manages. Afterwards, the minister deleted the publication.

The AI-generated images show what Palestinian terrorists would look like happy to receive a conviction, imagining that they would have perks in prison, such as food, sweets and tobacco. Then, Ben-Gvir appears, taking these benefits from the prisoners at the push of a button. The terrorists are then taken to prison as if they were on an assembly line, entering fat and leaving thin, hungry and in tears.