As World 'Pretends There's a Ceasefire,' Israeli Minister Doubles Down on Gaza Expulsion Plan

Amid a so-called "ceasefire" during which Israeli forces continue to kill and maim Palestinians, Israel's defense minister on Wednesday vowed to "finish the job" of depopulating the Gaza Strip—a plan human rights defenders have described as ethnic cleansing.

Responding to criticism from right-wing political rival Ofer Winter ahead of next month's Israeli elections, Defense Minister Israel Katz said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) would soon resume the full-scale assault on Gaza—which has left more than 250,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing since October 2023, 90% of the strip in ruins, and around 2 million people forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened.

Noting that 70% of Gaza has been forcibly depopulated, Katz said that "the IDF is prepared, once given the directive to eliminate Hamas, to finish the job so that we can also implement the migration plan," according to The Times of Israel.

Katz's remarks came after he said earlier this month that Israel was ready to implement plans to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza once US President Donald Trump gives his approval.

Trump has repeatedly backed the ethnic cleansing of Gaza's Palestinians. He said last year that the United States would "own" Gaza, "level it out," and build "the Riviera of the Middle East" there after the Palestinians—most of whom are descendants of people ethnically cleansed from the rest of Palestine during the bloody establishment of Israel in 1948—were gone.

While many proponents of expulsion claim it would be "voluntary," most Palestinians vehemently reject any relocation, voluntary or otherwise.

"Gaza is an integral part of our state," Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas stressed on Wednesday.

Numerous countries have been floated as possible destinations for Palestinians who are forced from or choose to leave Gaza, with Egypt—specifically the Sinai Peninsula—often topping such lists.

However, on Wednesday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi reaffirmed his government's "firm stance against the displacement of the Palestinian people or any attempt to annihilate the Palestinian cause," drawing praise from Abbas.

Katz has repeatedly advocated the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. He said last year that IDF troops were “expanding to crush and clean” the strip. He also said the military was “seizing large areas that will be added to the security zones of the state of Israel for the protection of fighting forces and the settlements,” a reference to plans by far-right members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and leaders of the settler movement for the illegal recolonization of the Palestinian exclave.

Last year, Israeli lawyer Omer Shatz filed an incitement to genocide case at the International Criminal Court in The Hague against eight Israeli officials, including Netanyhau, Katz, and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Netanyahu and Gallant are already fugitives from the ICC, where they are wanted for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza.

Israel is also the subject of a genocide case currently before the International Court of Justice filed by South Africa and formally supported by nearly 20 countries.

Katz's latest remarks come amid a nearly yearlong "ceasefire" during which more than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in Gaza. On Wednesday, a war-damaged apartment building in Gaza City collapsed, killing at least 21 Palestinians, including children. IDF airstrikes are also killing Palestinians on a daily basis.