Andrew Roth Global affairs correspondent
Israel’s defence minister has said his country is seeking Donald Trump’s support to approve plans to expel Palestinians from the Gaza Strip in what has widely been condemned as a potential war crime.
Israel Katz said there was “no real solution for Gaza in the end without this
migration” during a conference hosted by the Israeli news site Ynet and the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. He said the Israeli government was “organised and prepared to get them out by sea, by air, by every way possible”.
Trump discussed a US takeover of the Gaza Strip in early 2025 that would have involved removing Palestinians from the territory, but has since pulled back from the idea. A 20-point peace plan the White House drew up last year did not call for Palestinians’ deportation, an act that would be widely seen as ethnic cleansing.
Katz, however, said on Wednesday that he believed US support could tip regional opinion in favour of the forced resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza. He said Trump’s approval was crucial to convince neighbouring countries to accept Palestinian refugees.
“Every country that is willing to take them in wants American backing,” he said. “Trump has not cancelled this at the moment. He has frozen it.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request from the Guardian for comment on whether Trump was continuing to hold discussions on Israel’s proposals to forcibly depopulate the Gaza Strip….
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‘If we don’t act on the proof against Israel, we can’t redeem ourselves’: Justice Muralidhar
Biblical Archaeology and the Judeo-Christian legends / The Deconstruction of the Walls of Jericho
The Adoration of Force (this one is inspired by Simone Weil)
Natalia Ginzburg: Our Monstrous Ideas
Gaza and the Death of Conscience
Pankaj Mishra: The Shoah after Gaza
Israel’s War in Gaza Is Nothing but a War of Annihilation
Arab Failures: The Unspoken Complicity in Israel’s Genocide
Chris Hedges: The Gaza Riviera
After the truth-shower 