US Condemns Israeli Ministers’ Push for Palestinian Resettlement

Lauren Sforza

Washington: The United States condemned the contentious remarks made by two Israeli ministers advocating for Palestinians to leave Gaza and for Jewish settlers to return to the area, Labeling the statements as controversial.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Washington “rejects recent statements from Israeli Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir advocating for the resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza.”

“This rhetoric is inflammatory and irresponsible,” added Miller, who reiterated the “clear, consistent, and unequivocal” US position that “Gaza is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian land, with Hamas no longer in control of its future and with no terror groups able to threaten Israel.”

The US response followed remarks by Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who proposed the migration of Palestinian civilians as a resolution to the ongoing conflict and as a condition for establishing stability, enabling residents of southern Israel to reclaim their homes.

According to The Times of Israel, as published in The Hill report, two prominent far-right leaders of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government on Monday supported the reconstruction of settlements in the Gaza Strip and the promotion of “voluntary emigration” of Palestinians, while opposition MK Avigdor Liberman, known for his hardline views, demanded that Israel retake southern Lebanon.

They spoke during their parties’ respective faction meetings in the Knesset.

The Israel-Gaza conflict offers an “opportunity to concentrate on encouraging the migration of the residents of Gaza,” Ben Gvir told reporters, calling such a policy “a correct, just, moral and humane solution,” according to The Times of Israel.

“We cannot withdraw from any territory we are in in the Gaza Strip. Not only do I not rule out Jewish settlement there, I believe it is also an important thing,” Gvir said.

Meanwhile, Smotrich told members of his party and the Knesset that the “correct solution” to the ongoing Gaza conflict is “to encourage the voluntary migration of Gaza’s residents to countries that will agree to take in the refugees.”

The conflict in Gaza escalated after the October 7 attack by Hamas, where about 2,500 terrorists breached the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip, leading to casualties and the seizure of hostages. Israel, since the war began, has characterised its Gaza offensive as targeting Hamas’ infrastructure with the goal of eliminating the entire terror group while making efforts to minimise civilian casualties.

Reportedly, the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry claimed that over 20,000 people have been killed in the Strip during the war, an unverified figure that also does not differentiate between combatants and civilians and does not take into account those killed as a consequence of terror groups’ own rocket misfires.

The report was published in The Hill on Wednesday, and it is a reproduced report.