Israeli minister reveals plan to expel all Palestinians from Gaza

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir plans to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip

Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has set out a plan for the forced expulsion of all Palestinians from Gaza, with the intention of sending them abroad. Under the Geneva Conventions, the forced displacement of civilians in occupied territory more generally is considered a war crime.

Speaking ahead of closely contested Israeli elections, Ben-Gvir said the plan envisages removing 250,000 Palestinians from Gaza in its first year, followed by the rest of the territory’s roughly 2 million population over the next six years. He called the plan “realistic,” claiming that unnamed countries were ready to take in Palestinians from Gaza.

Israeli political figures have competed over the harshness of their proposals for Gaza, rebuffing efforts by US President Donald Trump to advance a ceasefire deal that Israeli strikes have continued to disrupt.

Ben-Gvir said his far-right Jewish Power party would demand a ministry overseeing emigration during the formation of the next government, describing the plan as the outcome of a year and a half of work.

The proposal is set out in a 20-page document titled “National Work Plan for Voluntary Emigration from the Gaza Strip.” Despite being described as voluntary, the plan is likely to be viewed internationally as coercive, given the severe conditions imposed on Gaza’s population by Israel and Ben-Gvir’s stated aim of removing its Palestinian residents.

An independent United Nations inquiry found earlier this year that Israel had continued to commit genocide by deliberately targeting Palestinian children in Gaza.

Ben-Gvir’s comments follow remarks by Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, who said Israel was seeking the Trump administration’s approval to displace Palestinians from Gaza, adding that the matter remained under discussion after being paused by Trump. Speaking at a conference hosted by the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, Katz said Israel would facilitate the emigration by any means.

Gaza Strip

Trump provoked international outrage early in his second term by suggesting all of Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians leave the territory so the US could redevelop it, a proposal he later walked back.

With Israeli elections due in October, Ben-Gvir has made a series of inflammatory interventions aimed at his far-right base, sharing footage from a site where Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks by Israeli military courts are due to be executed, a measure not applied to Jewish extremists accused of similar crimes, alongside separate footage depicting the mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody.

Polling suggests Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party would win around seven seats. Ben-Gvir has convictions for incitement to racism and for supporting a terrorist organisation, and has been placed under sanctions by several countries.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited a military outpost in Gaza on Wednesday to insist that Israel would not withdraw from the areas of the territory it occupies, saying Israel controlled 60% of the Strip and was continuing to eliminate militants there.

According to Israel’s deputy chief of general staff, Major General Tamir Yadai, Israel now controls 65% of Gaza, well beyond the 53% agreed under the ceasefire brokered by Trump last year.

Ben-Gvir has also called for the deportation of two members of parliament and others he described as disloyal to the state of Israel, including Jews, saying he would pursue such a policy if included in the next government.

(Information from The Guardian)