IDF ordered to facilitate mass migration of Gazans

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Gazans arrive in central Gaza after fleeing from the southern Gaza city of Rafah on May 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana

IDF ordered to facilitate mass migration of Gazans

Israel’s defense chief directs the military to draft plan enabling Gazans to leave the Gaza Strip en masse, following President Donald Trump’s call for the relocation of the entire population of the coastal enclave.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

The Israeli military is preparing to help facilitate the mass migration of Palestinian Arabs out of the Gaza Strip, Israel’s defense chief revealed Thursday.

According to a statement released by Defense Minister Israel Katz’s (Likud) office Thursday morning, the minister has instructed the IDF to aid Gazans wishing to leave the Strip to do so.

In the statement, Katz lauded President Donald Trump’s announcement Tuesday of his plans to relocate en masse the Gaza Strip’s entire population to third-party countries.

Trump’s proposal, Katz said, is a “courageous plan which could enable a wide swath of the population in Gaza to leave to various places around the world.”

“Hamas used Gaza residents as human shields and built terror infrastructure in the heart of the population, and is now holding them hostage, extorting money from them by use of humanitarian aid, and preventing them from leaving Gaza.”

The defense minister’s orders do not include any steps to force or encourage Gazans to emigrate, but merely to ensure IDF cooperation enabling those who express a desire to leave to do so. The measures would include ensuring the emigrants passage through land crossings or, in special cases, arrangement of passage by sea or air, presumably via Israel.

“Gaza’s residents should be allowed the freedom to exit and emigrate, as is the practice anywhere around the world,” Katz said.

Taking aim at countries which have endorsed unilateral Palestinian statehood and backed “false accusations” against Israel’s conduct in the Gaza Strip, Katz suggested Spain, Ireland, and Norway take in Gazans.

Katz also noted that Canada has “previously voiced a willingness to absorb Gaza residents.”