Israel seeks Trump’s backing to empty Gaza of Palestinians, minister says
Defense Minister Israel Katz says there is "no real solution" without mass departure — plan rights groups call ethnic cleansing
NEW YORK (MNTV) — Israel is seeking renewed U.S. backing for a plan to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, Defense Minister Israel Katz has said, declaring there could be “no real solution for Gaza” without what he called mass “migration” — a proposal legal experts and rights groups say would amount to ethnic cleansing and a war crime.
Speaking Wednesday at a conference hosted by the Israeli outlets Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth, Katz said Israel was “organized and prepared” to remove Palestinians “by sea, by air, by every way possible,” and claimed — without evidence — that 80 percent of Gaza’s population wanted to leave.
He said the plan required U.S. approval because no country would accept displaced Palestinians without Washington’s support, and asserted that Trump had not abandoned the proposal but merely “frozen” it.
Egypt, which Katz singled out as an obstacle, has repeatedly refused to take in Palestinians and warned against their permanent removal.
The forcible transfer of civilians from occupied territory is prohibited under the 1949 Geneva Conventions and is a war crime; Palestinians and human-rights advocates have long argued that Israel’s conduct in Gaza amounts to genocide, a case now before the International Court of Justice.
Katz’s remarks give an official voice to a policy of permanent expulsion, following Trump’s own February 2025 proposal for a U.S. “takeover” of Gaza and the displacement of its people, which drew widespread international condemnation.
A Fatah spokesman called the comments “dangerous,” pointing to Israeli military control of roughly 70 percent of Gaza as evidence of a broader push to force Palestinians out.
The threat lands on a population already devastated. Israel’s offensive has killed more than 73,400 Palestinians, including over 1,330 since the October 2025 ceasefire it has repeatedly violated while restricting aid and blocking reconstruction.
The comments also come as Netanyahu — who this week visited troops inside Gaza and vowed not to withdraw until Hamas is disarmed — and his allies compete to project hardline positions before next month’s election.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, in footage from a women’s prison, appeared to boast of worsening conditions after a detainee complained of being denied medical care and clean clothing.
For Palestinians, permanent expulsion would compound years of blockade, bombardment, and mass displacement — raising, rights groups say, some of the gravest legal and moral questions of the entire war.
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