Israel’s defense minister has ordered the Israel Defense Forces to devise a plan for Palestinians to leave the Gaza Strip, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal for how the devastated territory would be administered.
“I have instructed the IDF to prepare a plan to enable voluntary departure for Gaza residents,” Defense Minister Israel Katz said Thursday, adding they could go “to any country willing to accept them.”
Katz said the plan “will include options for exit and land crossings as well as special arrangement for exit by sea and air.”
Katz welcomed what he characterized as Trump’s “bold plan” for Gaza residents to leave the territory, which has been devastated by Israeli ground and air attacks targeting Hamas militants.
Trump on Thursday said Israel should turn the Gaza Strip over to the United States after the war with Hamas ends and that no U.S. soldiers would be needed there.
Trump, who has called for U.S. ownership of the narrow territory along the Mediterranean Sea, issued the statement on Truth Social. Under his plan, he said, more than 2 million Palestinians “would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region.”
Trump did not say whether he meant in Gaza or in other countries that as of yet have not agreed to accept them.
“They would actually have a chance to be happy, safe, and free,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, Hamas on Thursday called on all Palestinian factions to unite against Trump’s proposed Gaza takeover.
Trump earlier this week said he could envision sending U.S. troops to Gaza to ease the American takeover but said in his new posting that with the Israeli handover of the land, “No soldiers by the U.S. would be needed! Stability for the region would reign!!!”
Trump’s surprise Gaza takeover plan, announced earlier this week alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a White House news conference, has been widely assailed by U.S. allies and adversaries alike, many of which remain committed to creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
The two-state solution had been a long-held U.S. stance but one that Netanyahu opposes.
Gaza has been decimated by the more than 15 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas.
But in his new comments, Trump said, “The U.S., working with great development teams from all over the World, would slowly and carefully begin the construction of what would become one of the greatest and most spectacular developments of its kind on Earth.”
On Tuesday, Trump said a newly redeveloped Gaza would become the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio doubled down on Trump’s plan on Thursday, saying that Gaza is “not habitable” due to unexploded weapons and other dangers, and that people would have to live elsewhere while the region is rebuilt.
Guterres: Don’t make problem worse
Trump’s proposal has met widespread criticism, including from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
“In the search for solutions, we must not make the problem worse” by moving Palestinians out of Gaza, Guterres said. “It is vital to stay true to the bedrock of international law. It is essential to avoid any form of ethnic cleansing.”
Forcibly transferring populations is strictly prohibited under international law and can constitute ethnic cleansing.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Wednesday that Trump’s proposals “generate deep concern in some people, even horror” and would be “unacceptable under international law.”
The 22-member Arab League said Trump’s plan “represents a recipe for instability” and would not advance the prospects of Palestinian statehood.
“They must be allowed home,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Wednesday.
“They must be allowed to rebuild, and we should be with them in that rebuild, on the way to a two-state solution.”
Following Trump’s Gaza ownership suggestion, Australia, China, Germany, Ireland, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Spain all said that they continue to support a two-state solution.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for the United Nations to “protect the Palestinian people and their inalienable rights,” saying that what Trump wanted to do would be “a serious violation of international law.”
Hamas said Trump’s Gaza proposal was a “recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region. Instead of holding the Zionist occupation accountable for the crime of genocide and displacement, it is being rewarded, not punished.”
Fighting in Gaza has halted, other than occasional outbursts, amid a planned six-week ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group.
Hamas sparked the war with the shock October 2023 attack on Israel, during which the militants killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostages.
Israel’s counteroffensive has killed more than 47,500 people, more than half women and children, according to the health ministry in Gaza. The Israeli military says it has killed 17,000 Hamas militants.
Hamas is believed to be holding about 60 living captives.
During the first phase of the ceasefire, the militants released 18 hostages, while Israel has freed hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
More people are due to be set free in the coming weeks, and negotiators are working on the details of a planned second phase of the ceasefire that would bring an end to the conflict, free the remaining hostages and see Israeli troops withdraw from Gaza.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
