Palestine weekly: Israeli ministers push for depopulation of Gaza
Ethnic cleansing plans move from slogans to policy proposals, amid West Bank demolitions and mounting deaths in Gaza.
Far-right Israeli ministers began more forcefully advocating the wholesale removal of Palestinians in Gaza last week, offering timelines and government mechanisms to conduct illegal forced expulsions while displacement, demolitions and killings continued across Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz told a conference on Wednesday that removing Palestinians from Gaza is “the only solution”, saying Israel is prepared to do it “by sea, by air and by every way possible”, and that US President Donald Trump has merely “frozen” – not cancelled – his support for the idea.
Then, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir unveiled a seven-year plan, branded “Disengagement 710”, to remove Gaza’s roughly two million residents through what he called “voluntary emigration”.
“It’s wiping the village off the face of the earth,” council head Nidal Younis said. Residents, he added, intend to rebuild.