Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, leader of the Jewish Power party, has said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expressing “openness” to the idea of expelling Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
Ben Gvir and other ministers are openly in support of establishing Jewish settlements in Gaza and cleansing the land of its Palestinian population.
“Ideas like settling in Gaza are welcome; the only times we defeated our enemies were when we took territory from them,” Ben Gvir said in an interview with Israel’s Army Radio on Sunday. “But that doesn’t satisfy me. I also want to encourage emigration [of Palestinians from Gaza].”
“I am working hard to promote the encouragement of migration from Gaza with the prime minister, and I am beginning to discover some openness on the matter,” Ben Gvir added.
Netanyahu has previously claimed the idea of expelling Palestinians and building settlements is not part of his plan for Gaza, but according to Israeli media, he said in December 2023 that he was looking for other countries to “absorb” the Palestinian population of Gaza.
On the ground, the Israeli military is paving the way for settlements in certain parts of Gaza. Since early October, the IDF has been conducting an ethnic cleansing campaign in northern Gaza focused on the cities of Beit Lahia, Jabalia, and Beit Hanoun, where its forces are demolishing homes, so Palestinians have no place to return.
Settler leaders are confident that settlements are coming and have even scouted locations inside Gaza with assistance from the IDF. Many members of Netanyahu’s Likud Party have expressed strong support for settlements and have called for ethnic cleansing.
May Golan, a Likud member and the minister for Social Equality and the Advancement of the Status of Women, recently called for another “Nakba,” referring to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Arabs when the modern state of Israel was formed in 1948.
“We will hit them where it hurts – their land,” Golan said at a resettle Gaza conference in October. “Anyone who uses their plot of land to plan another Holocaust will receive from us, with God’s help, another Nakba that they will tell their children and their grandchildren about for the next 50 years.
In October 2023, a document prepared by Israel’s Intelligence Ministry that was leaked to the media said the best post-war scenario for Israel would be the expulsion of all 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza.
