Israel’s far-right National Security Minister has drawn up a plan for the illegal and forcible expulsion of all Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, with the intention of sending them abroad. Speaking in the run-up to the disputed Israeli election, Itamar Ben-Gvir said the plan aimed to expel 250,000 Palestinians from Gaza in the first year, followed by the rest of its population of about 2 million over the next six years. “It is realistic,” Ben-Gvir said, stating that there were countries that were “ready” to take in Palestinians from Gaza, without naming which ones. While the forced displacement of civilians in occupied territories is considered a war crime under the Geneva conventions, Israeli political figures have competed on the toughness of their visions for Gaza, rejecting US President Donald Trump’s efforts to advance a half-hearted and largely moribund ceasefire deal that has been marked by continued 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 its plan was “the result of a year and a half of work and… it is concrete.” Itamar Ben-Gvir speaks at a rally in the Israeli city of Netanya this week. Photograph: Amir Levy/Getty Images The proposal is contained in a 20-page document with the euphemistic title “National Work Plan for Voluntary Emigration from the Gaza Strip”. Despite the use of the word “voluntary”, the international community will consider the plan to be coercive due to the terrible conditions imposed on the people of Gaza by Israel and Ben-Gvir’s explicit intention: to expel the Palestinian population from Gaza. Earlier this year, an independent UN investigation found that Israel continued to commit genocide by deliberately targeting Palestinian children in Gaza. Ben-Gvir’s comments follow comments by Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz, who said Israel was seeking approval from the Trump administration to displace Palestinians from Gaza, which he said was still under discussion after being “frozen” by Trump. Katz, at a conference organized by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, said Israel would facilitate emigration “by any means,” implying a policy of coercion. Trump himself sparked international outrage at the start of his second term with a suggestion that the two million Palestinians leave Gaza and that the United States rebuild the territory, a proposal he later rejected. With elections in Israel in October, Ben-Gvir has made a series of inflammatory interventions targeting his far-right base, including sharing images of a site where Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks by Israeli military courts will be executed, but not Jewish extremists accused of similar crimes. In another video, he reveled in the mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody. Polls suggest that Jewish Power, the party led by Ben-Gvir – which is convicted of inciting racism and supporting a terrorist organization, and which has been sanctioned by several countries – would win about seven seats. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for his part, visited a military post in Gaza on Wednesday to insist that Israel will not withdraw from the areas of Gaza it occupies. “We are not going to withdraw. We will maintain 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 it day after day,” he said. According to Israel’s Deputy Chief of the General Staff, Major General Tamir Yadai, the country now controls 65% of Gaza. This is well beyond the 53% agreed upon under the ceasefire negotiated last year by Trump. In addition to pushing for the expulsion of Gaza’s population, Ben-Gvir has called for the deportation of two parliamentarians and others “who are disloyal to the State of Israel” – including Jews – saying he would promote that policy if included in the next government.
