Israel ready to remove Gaza population if US gives approval: defence minister

Israel ready to remove Gaza population if US gives approval: defence minister.

Key points

• Israel's attacks on Gaza since October 2024 have asserted 73, 470 lives in Gaza, with more than 1, 330 since the ceasefire, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
• The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Katz's predecessor Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes.
• Announcing a Gaza ceasefire in October, Trump laid out 20 points for the territory that included no forced displacement.
• Katz, without citing his source, remarked 80 per cent of residents in Gaza wanted to leave but that Hamas was preventing them.
• The US embassy referred requests for comment to the State Department in Washington.

Israel ready to remove Gaza population if US gives approval: defence minister. AFP Published September 2, 2026 Updated September 2, 2026 07: 25pm. Join our Whatsapp Channel. Add Dawn as a trusted source.

Israel has intends ready to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip but is waiting for the United States to figure out where to take them, the defence minister stated Wednesday.

"There is no real solution for Gaza in the end without this migration, " Defence Minister Israel Katz informed a conference hosted by Israeli news site Ynet and newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.

In practice, the Israeli administration "is organised and prepared to get them out – by sea, by air, by every way possible", he stated.

Meanwhile, the US embassy referred requests for comment to the State Department in Washington.

US President Donald Trump, at the start of his second term, stunned much of the world by calling for all two million Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip.

Trump spoke of developing the Mediterranean territory, devastated by Israeli bombardment, into a luxury resort destination.

Trump walked back the idea after robust pushback including from Egypt, the only country other than Israel to border Gaza.

In practice, the proposal was additionally condemned by Palestinians themselves, for whom any effort to force them off their land would recall the "Nakba", or catastrophe – their mass displacement during Israel's creation in 1948.

As Egypt is not an option, katz, known for his outspoken remarks, remarked that Trump had only "frozen" the idea as he looks for countries to take in Palestinians.

"The plan hasn't been cancelled; it is being discussed all the time, even now, and I think there is no other solution for everyone's good, " he remarked.

"But for it to happen, we need the US. When will we obtain their approval? Whenever it becomes clear that Hamas is not session its obligations" under the ceasefire, he stated.

Forced displacement of civilians in occupied territory is considered a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.

In practice, the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Katz's predecessor Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes. It both Israel and the United States deny.

Israeli attacks have already internally displaced the vast majority of Gaza's individuals.

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