Palestinian rights group condemns Israeli minister’s Gaza forced displacement remarks

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights has condemned comments by Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz about a plan to forcefully relocate large numbers of Palestinians from Gaza. Katz said on Wednesday that a plan to move Palestinians “by sea, land and air” was ready and waiting for a green light from the United States. He said “there is no real solution for Gaza without this migration”. Katz also said US President Donald Trump had paused the plan but had not abandoned it, and that Israel was ready to move people out “by every way possible”. In a statement on Friday, the centre linked Katz’s comments to recent remarks by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israeli forces control about 60 percent of Gaza and will not withdraw. The centre said the statements pointed to a deliberate effort to alter Gaza’s demographics. It said removing Palestinians, whether by force or under humanitarian cover, would constitute an unlawful forcible transfer. Two girls walk amid the rubble in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, on 25 August (AFP/Bashar Taleb)