Israeli Minister Proposes ‘Resettling’ Gaza Residents Outside the Strip

Palestinians are displaced from north to south Gaza. (AFP)
Palestinians are displaced from north to south Gaza. (AFP)
TT

Israeli Minister Proposes ‘Resettling’ Gaza Residents Outside the Strip

Palestinians are displaced from north to south Gaza. (AFP)
Palestinians are displaced from north to south Gaza. (AFP)

Israeli Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel said on Sunday the international community should promote "the voluntary resettlement" of Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip "instead of sending money to reconstruct" the enclave.

Writing in the Jerusalem Post, Gamliel proposed an option "to promote the voluntary resettlement of Palestinians in Gaza, for humanitarian reasons, outside of the Strip."

The Likud minister also criticized the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

"Instead of funneling money to rebuild Gaza or to the failed UNRWA, the international community can assist in the costs of resettlement, helping the people of Gaza build new lives in their new host countries," she continued.

She said Israel has tried many different solutions, such as withdrawing from the settlements in the Gaza Strip, conflict management, and building high walls, but they all failed.

"Gaza has long been thought of as a problem without an answer," Gamliel wrote, adding: "It could be a win-win solution: a win for those civilians of Gaza who seek a better life and a win for Israel after this devastating tragedy."

On Oct. 7, Hamas launched an unprecedented attack in Israel, killing 1,200 people and capturing about 240 persons.

Since then, the Israeli army has been relentlessly bombing the Strip to eliminate Hamas.

According to the Hamas government, at least 13,000 people were killed, two-thirds of whom are women and children.

After 44 days of war, more than 1.6 million Gazans are displaced, equivalent to two-thirds of the population of the enclave.

About 80 percent of Gaza's population are refugees or the children and grandchildren of refugees who left their homes during the Nakba during the establishment of Israel in 1948.

Various officials, including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, have warned of a "second Nakba" in wake of the Israeli attack.



Israeli Defense Minister Says He Will End Detention without Charge of Jewish Settlers

Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
TT

Israeli Defense Minister Says He Will End Detention without Charge of Jewish Settlers

Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians look at damaged cars after an Israeli settlers attack in Al-Mazraa Al-Qibleyeh near Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 20, 2024. (Reuters)

Israel’s new defense minister said Friday that he would stop issuing warrants to arrest West Bank settlers or hold them without charge or trial — a largely symbolic move that rights groups said risks emboldening settler violence in the Israeli-occupied territory.

Israel Katz called the arrest warrants “severe” and said issuing them was “inappropriate” as Palestinian militant attacks on settlers in the territory grow more frequent. He said settlers could be “brought to justice” in other ways.

The move protects Israeli settlers from being held in “administrative detention,” a shadowy form of incarceration where people are held without charge or trial.

Settlers are rarely arrested in the West Bank, where settler violence against Palestinians has spiraled since the outbreak of the war Oct. 7.

Katz’s decision was celebrated by far-right coalition allies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. National Security Minister and settler firebrand Itamar Ben-Gvir applauded Katz and called the move a “correction of many years of mistreatment” and “justice for those who love the land.”

Since Oct. 7, 2023, violence toward Palestinians by Israeli settlers has soared to new heights, displacing at least 19 entire Palestinian communities, according to Israeli rights group Peace Now. In that time, attacks by Palestinian militants on settlers and within Israel have also grown more common.

An increasing number of Palestinians have been placed in administrative detention. Israel holds 3,443 administrative detainees in prison, according to data from the Israeli Prison Service, reported by rights group Hamoked. That figure stood around 1,200 just before the start of the war. The vast majority of them are Palestinian, with only a handful at any given time Israeli Jews, said Jessica Montell, the director of Hamoked.

“All of these detentions without charge or trial are illegitimate, but to declare that this measure will only be used against Palestinians...is to explicitly entrench another form of ethnic discrimination,” said Montell.