Defense Minister Israel Katz on Monday formed a new body within the ministry that will seek to coordinate and assist Palestinians who wish to voluntarily leave Gaza for third-party countries.
Since US President Donald Trump recently announced his desire to rebuild Gaza into a resort strip after its Gazan population left for other countries, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Katz have tried to give support to the plan.
Until Trump’s recent announcement, Netanyahu had been discussing the involvement of Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and others in managing the Gaza Strip, while the Palestinian population would remain there.
However, Egypt and Jordan, the two main countries Trump hoped would take on Gaza’s Palestinian population, have angrily rejected Trump’s idea, with all official Palestinian spokespeople rejecting the idea as well.
Israel will help facilitate leaving
However, should some Gazan Palestinians want to leave, and most commentators do believe some small minority will wish to leave, according to Katz, Israel and the IDF will help facilitate their leaving via a mix of land, air, and sea transport options.
Katz chaired a meeting on the issue, which included COGAT Head Maj. Gen. Rasan Elian, PMO Military Secretary Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman, Katz’s Military Secretary Brig. Gen. Guy Markizano, IDF Gaza Humanitarian Operations Chief Brig. Gen. Elad Goren, and others.
Curiously, for an initiative of such complexity, incoming IDF chief Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir, IDF Intelligence Chief Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder and other top officials leading the IDF Operations and Strategy Commands were not present.
Outgoing IDF chief Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi could not have attended as he is flying to the US for the next several days.
