Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday that plans to facilitate the mass emigration of Palestinians from Gaza remain under discussion and were merely “frozen” by US President Donald Trump, not taken off the table entirely.
He discussed the plans, saying Israel would facilitate emigration “by any means,” at a conference hosted by Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, at the same time as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid a visit to an IDF outpost inside the Gaza Strip and reaffirmed that Israel had no plans to withdraw.
Katz, in a recorded clip from the conference, claimed that some “80 percent [of Gazans] want to emigrate,” citing unspecified surveys Israel has conducted, but that the unwillingness of other countries to take them in is a roadblock to implementing this.
“There is no real solution for Gaza in the end without this migration,” Katz insisted. “Hamas isn’t allowing them [to leave], and there are no countries in the world taking them in. President Trump put the issue on the agenda. Now every country needs to take people in — and that’s the big issue.”
Should other countries be open to taking in Gazans, Katz said the Israeli government “is organized and prepared to get them out — by sea, by air, by every way possible.”
