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Israel is seeking to revive its plan for the so-called “voluntary migration” of Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip, and has rebranded it in an effort to soften the blanket international opposition to it, Channel 13 news reported on August 28, citing unnamed Israeli officials.
According to the report, Israeli security agencies have in recent days been told to abandon the “voluntary migration” title due to the global opposition, and it will from now on be officially referred to as a “plan for free movement.”
The network cites officials familiar with ties with countries that could potentially receive Gazans as voicing optimism that the terminology change will persuade them to drop their current refusal to cooperate with the plan, and recruit other countries.
One senior Israeli official is quoted in the report as saying Israel wants as many Gazans as possible to leave the Strip, viewing this as contributing to any future plan implemented in the territory.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new national security adviser, Shmuel Ben Ezra, convened an urgent meeting on “encouraging voluntary emigration” from Gaza on June 23.
According to the Haaretz newspaper, security officials were surprised the issue was being brought up again, and at such short notice.
Representatives from the Mossad said during the meeting that they had found no countries willing to take in Gazans, and that there were otherwise no new developments on the matter, the report said.
While these reports suggest that the push for a new migration plan is still in its early stages, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced on June 29 that Israel has prepared plans to establish three settlements in Gaza. The minister said that all that is needed to move ahead with the project is the approval of Netanyahu.
The Defense Ministry Settlement Administration, which Smotrich administers, “has completed the groundwork to establish three settlements in the north Gaza area,” he said in a statement.
Smotrich called on Netanyahu to “give the approval” in order to “complete the mission and restore true security for the residents of the south.”
The last few weeks saw an uptake in Israeli strikes on Gaza, and even reports of Israeli troops slowly expanding its control in the Strip, marked by the so-called Yellow Line.
Currently, around 60 percent of Gaza is located within the Yellow Line. Last month, Prime Netanyahu openly stated that he had ordered the IDF to take control of 70 percent of the Strip.
On top of all of that, earlier this month Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth both reported that the chief of the military’s Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor, has been pushing for and recommending a new offensive in the Strip during General Staff and political-level discussions.
A new offensive by the Israeli military will likely mark the end of the peace plan put in place by the U.S. last year, and that would open the door again for the preeminent forced displacement of Gazans and the establishment of settlements in the Strip.
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