Netanyahu allies mobilize against displacement of Palestinians from Gaza
Joel Gehrke
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Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant unveiled a plan for Palestinian control of the Gaza Strip after the war against Hamas in an apparent bid to allay international misgivings about a potential displacement of Palestinians.
“There are Palestinians living there so it would be Palestinians who would be responsible for them, provided they would not be hostile to Israel or able to operate against it,” Gallant told local reporters Thursday.
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That prospect depends on the destruction of Hamas and Israel’s cooperation with “local committees that are not hostile to Israel.” The defense chief outlined his intentions amid a chorus of international condemnation directed at National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Belazel Smotrich, who advocate so-called “voluntary migration” of Palestinian people from Gaza.
“A joint operation will be carried out by Israel and Egypt in cooperation with the U.S. to ensure effective isolation of the border between Gaza and Egypt by technological and physical means and joint control over the entry of goods,” Gallant said, per the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation’s Amichai Stein.
In parallel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s allies mobilized to rebuke the far-right Israeli lawmakers.
“It’s not realistic, and it’s clear that the international community will not accept it,” Israeli Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar, one of Netanyahu’s Likud party allies, told an Israeli media outlet. “We see the repercussions, we see what happened with the Americans.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s team rebuked Ben-Gvir and Smotrich by name Tuesday for their “inflammatory and irresponsible” proposals, in just one U.S. criticism that was matched by regional and international policymakers. European Union high representative Josep Borrell echoed France’s warning that “forced displacements are strictly prohibited” under international law, and Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry issued a “categorical rejection” of the proposal — a weighty objection, given Israel’s desire to finalize a normalization of diplomatic relations with Riyadh.
“I think that everyone who sits around the government table and around the Cabinet table should remember that we have a heavy responsibility to the citizens of the State of Israel,” Israeli unity government member Yifat Shasha-Biton said Thursday. “I think that Smotrich and Ben-Gvir do not understand the magnitude of the responsibility that rests on their shoulders.”
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Shasha-Biton is an ally of former Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, the major opposition leader who formed a unity government with Netanyahu in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack that ignited the war. Their opposition to Ben-Gvir and Smotrich could take on additional importance after the war when Israel is expected to go to elections that will function as a reckoning for anger over the security failures that Hamas exploited.
“People like Benny Gantz, [War Cabinet Minister] Gadi Eisenkot, Yoav Gallant — guys like that are likely going to hold the center in whatever government comes next,” said Jonathan Schanzer, Foundation for Defense of Democracies senior vice president.