JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Far-right Israeli politician Itamar Ben Gvir hailed U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments that Palestinians should be moved out of Gaza, joining settler groups in the occupied West Bank in urging swift action.
Ben Gvir, former minister for national security, said in a post on X on Tuesday that “encouraging” Gazans to migrate from the enclave was the only correct strategy at the end of the war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
He urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to adopt that policy “immediately”.
The hardline former minister, who is part of a political movement advocating for Jewish settlement in Gaza, and two other ministers from his nationalist-religious party resigned from Netanyahu’s cabinet last month over a landmark deal that aims to secure the release of hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails.
In comments made on Tuesday during a visit to Washington by Netanyahu, Trump raised the prospect of relocating the more than 2 million Palestinians living in Gaza, suggesting it had become uninhabitable after nearly 16 months of war between Israel and Hamas.
The Nachala Movement, which promotes Jewish settlement in the West Bank, said that, assuming Trump’s comments were put into practice, “we must hurry and establish settlements throughout the Gaza Strip”.
“No part of the land of Israel should be left without Jewish settlement. If an area remains desolate, it may be captured by enemies,” it said in a statement on the social media platform X.
Human rights advocates deplore such ideas as ethnic cleansing. Any forced displacement would likely be a violation of international law.
The initial six-week truce, agreed with Egyptian and Qatari mediators and backed by the U.S., has remained largely intact but prospects for a durable settlement are unclear.
The war began with the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s military campaign in Gaza since then has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, health authorities there say.
(Reporting by Emily RoseEditing by Angus MacSwan and Gareth Jones)
