Extension | Israel says it has no plans to deport Palestinians from Gaza
Israel has no plans to deport the Palestinian population from the Gaza Strip, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Friday, adding that it would coordinate with neighboring Egypt its plans for hundreds of thousands of refugees in the city of Rafah.
The deep concern that Palestinians could be driven out of the Gaza Strip has been of great concern to both the Palestinians and their Arab neighbors since Israel launched its attack in response to the Hamas attack on October 7.
Israel is prepared to attack Rafah and several sources have said that contingency plans are being drawn up in Egypt to accommodate the Palestinians should the situation become critical. Satellite images have shown that Cairo is preparing areas on the border that NGOs say could be used to house refugees if necessary.
Katz said Israel had no choice but to invade Rafah because fighters from the militant Palestinian Islamist group Hamas were using the town as cover.
“We have no intention of deporting Palestinians from the Gaza Strip,” Katz said. “Israel does not want to harm Palestinian civilians; That is why we are moving them to safe areas while Hamas tries to prevent this. “We have no intention of governing civilian life in Gaza after the war.”
This position is not shared by the entire Israeli government, most of whose ultra-sectors have proposed the mass expulsion of Palestinians from the enclave and the reconstruction of Israeli colonies abandoned in 2006.
Asked where the city's hundreds of thousands of Palestinians would go, Katz suggested that once Khan Younis, Gaza's second-largest city, was “liberated” from Hamas militants, they could return there or to the west of the enclave.
Most of Israel's allies, the United Nations and several NGOs have warned that deporting refugees to Egypt would be a disaster. Katz downplayed that option, assuring that Israel was talking to the United States about evacuating refugees but would also coordinate with Egypt.
“We will deal with Rafah after discussing it with Egypt. We will coordinate it, make a peace agreement with them and find a place that will not harm the Egyptians,” Katz promised. “We will coordinate everything and not harm their interests.” (Portal)