The Israeli Defense Minister, Israel Katz, reaffirmed this Wednesday his intention to implement the plan for the displacement of the population out of Gaza, which the Government was managing at the beginning of 2025 but was paralyzed with the evolution of the offensive and the current ceasefire.
“The voluntary emigration plan from Gaza will also be implemented, all on time and in the right way,” Katz wrote on the social network X.
The idea of displacing the population of Gaza, which the President of the United States, Donald Trump, suggested after a meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in early February 2025 and which the Israeli authorities quickly embraced, is seen by numerous human rights organizations as a plan for ethnic cleansing in the Strip.
That same month, Katz announced the creation of a “Directorate for the Voluntary Exit of Gaza Residents” under Defense, aimed at “assisting” Gazans seeking to “voluntarily” leave the enclave.
How things are
Some 2.1 million people live in the Gaza Strip, currently crowded into 40% of the enclave along the coast, due to the Israeli military occupation of the rest of the territory.
According to the UN Satellite Center (UNOSAT), 81% of all structures in Gaza have been damaged in Israeli strikes since October 7, 2023.
The majority of the population resides in tents or damaged buildings, faced with the impossibility of undertaking reconstruction or returning to their homes in the midst of a ceasefire that does not evolve towards the rehabilitation of the Palestinian enclave.
More than 72,800 Gazans have been killed in Israeli attacks in the Strip since Israel launched its offensive on October 7, 2023, according to the enclave’s Ministry of Health.
The Israeli Army then began its attacks as retaliation for the Gazan militias’ invasion of Israel that same day, in which they killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 251.
