Netanyahu to Form Team to Look into ‘Voluntary Migration’ of Palestinians

Palestinians run for cover from a raid near Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City last November. (AFP)
Palestinians run for cover from a raid near Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City last November. (AFP)
TT

Netanyahu to Form Team to Look into ‘Voluntary Migration’ of Palestinians

Palestinians run for cover from a raid near Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City last November. (AFP)
Palestinians run for cover from a raid near Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City last November. (AFP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to form a team to look into the deportation of thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, according to a Likud MK.

This announcement was made during a Likud meeting two days ago in response to a call by MK Danny Danon who is chairman of World Likud and former Israeli Ambassador to the UN.

The deportation of Palestinians is becoming more popular among the Israeli right-wing parties and to make it more acceptable they suggest that it is a “voluntary migration”.

Several Israeli plans have been made public, discussing the deportation of Gazans to Egypt. One was prepared by the Ministry of Intelligence and the second by the Psagot Institute.

Likud Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel published an article last month on this matter in The Jerusalem Post. The Israeli Embassy in Washington had to state that the article doesn’t represent the government.

Meanwhile, this suggestion sparked anger in Egypt and Jordan and the Arab countries took a unified stance against it.

The US Administration responded to Arab demands and announced absolute rejection of deportation of Palestinians.

Danon revealed that he has been contacted by "countries in Latin America and Africa that are willing to take refugees from the Gaza Strip."

Danon termed this solution as “very humanitarian”.

According to the MK, this is "voluntary migration of Palestinians who wish to leave."

"It happens in every war, look at what's happening in Syria – one and a half million went to Jordan, three million went to Türkiye and another few million went to Europe," Danon added.

"I think the Arab states have a duty to help the Palestinians. They should have the decency to help instead of making inflammatory speeches,” he added.

Danon said that a couple of weeks ago MK Ram Ben-Barak published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal in the same spirit.



Fears for Gaza Hospitals as Fuel and Aid Run Low

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
TT

Fears for Gaza Hospitals as Fuel and Aid Run Low

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled.

The warning came a day after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant more than a year into the Gaza war.

The United Nations and others have repeatedly decried humanitarian conditions, particularly in northern Gaza, where Israel said Friday it had killed two commanders involved in Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war.

Gaza medics said an overnight Israeli raid on the cities of Beit Lahia and nearby Jabalia resulted in dozens killed or missing.

Marwan al-Hams, director of Gaza's field hospitals, told reporters all hospitals in the Palestinian territory "will stop working or reduce their services within 48 hours due to the occupation's (Israel's) obstruction of fuel entry".

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was "deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of 80 patients, including 8 in the intensive care unit" at Kamal Adwan hospital, one of just two partly operating in northern Gaza.

Kamal Adwan director Hossam Abu Safia told AFP it was "deliberately hit by Israeli shelling for the second day" Friday and that "one doctor and some patients were injured".

Late Thursday, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Muhannad Hadi, said: "The delivery of critical aid across Gaza, including food, water, fuel and medical supplies, is grinding to a halt."

He said that for more than six weeks, Israeli authorities "have been banning commercial imports" while "a surge in armed looting" has hit aid convoys.

Issuing the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the Hague-based ICC said there were "reasonable grounds" to believe they bore "criminal responsibility" for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, and crimes against humanity including over "the lack of food, water, electricity and fuel, and specific medical supplies".

At least 44,056 people have been killed in Gaza during more than 13 months of war, most of them civilians, according to figures from Gaza's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.