Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said he is committed to ethnic cleansing of Gaza through large-scale migration of Palestinians as part of long-term plans. He stated the government would implement a plan for large numbers of Palestinians to leave Gaza at the right time and in the right manner. The plan is linked to redeveloping Gaza without Palestinians and to excluding Hamas from power. Israel has promoted emigration by setting up a bureau for voluntary emigration and easing travel restrictions for one-way departures. Human rights organisations and lawyers warned that conditions in Gaza make departure impossible to call voluntary and amount to planning for forced evacuation and expulsion. Forced transfer of civilian populations is described as a war crime and a crime against humanity.
"Israel's defence minister has said he is committed to the ethnic cleansing of Gaza through large-scale migration of Palestinians as part of Israel's long-term plans for the territory. Israel Katz said the government would implement a plan for large numbers of Palestinians to leave Gaza at the right time and in the right manner, in a statement on Wednesday marking the targeted killing of Mohammed Odeh, Hamas's most recent military commander."
"Pushing for mass departures violates Donald Trump's ceasefire plan for Gaza, which Israel signed last year. The second point of the plan states: Gaza will be redeveloped for the benefit of the people of Gaza, who have suffered more than enough. Israel's government has promoted the prospect of Gaza without Palestinians since Trump suggested early last year that hundreds of thousands of people should leave to clean out the strip for reconstruction."
"Last year Israel set up a bureau for voluntary emigration and eased travel restrictions for Palestinians who wanted to make a one-way journey out of the strip. The forced transfer of civilian populations is a war crime and a crime against humanity. Israeli officials, including Katz, use the term voluntary migration to describe their plans for large numbers of Palestinians to leave Gaza."
"Israel-based human rights organisations and lawyers have warned that the conditions Israel has imposed on Gaza mean no departure can be considered voluntary and the policy constitutes planning for ethnic cleansing. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel said last year: Creating living conditions that do not allow for survival, freedom and dignity, and subjecting civilians to them until they say they want to leave is not a plan for encouraging voluntary emigration' but a plan for forced evacuation and expulsion."
Read at www.theguardian.com
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