This is an idea that could galvanize defenders of the Palestinian cause. Israeli Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel on Sunday called on the international community to “promote the voluntary resettlement” of Palestinians “outside the Gaza Strip” following the war between her country and Hamas, which has controlled the enclave since 2007.
In a text published by The Jerusalem Post, Gila Gamliel, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party Likud, suggested “promoting the voluntary relocation of Palestinians from Gaza outside the Gaza Strip on humanitarian grounds.”
“It would be a win-win situation,” she says. “For the civilians of Gaza who want a better life and for Israel after this terrible tragedy” on October 7th.
On that day, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas launched an attack of unprecedented proportions in Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities. About 240 people were kidnapped and taken to Palestinian territory.
Since then, the Israeli army has bombed the Gaza Strip relentlessly to “wipe out” Hamas. According to the Hamas government, 12,300 people were killed, two-thirds of them women and children.
After 44 days of war, more than 1.6 million people had to relocate to the Gaza Strip, which is two thirds of the small territory’s population.
While 80% of Gazans are themselves refugees or descendants of refugees who left their homeland during the “Nakba,” the “catastrophe” that the creation of Israel represented to them in 1948, many of them, including the Palestinian, denounce it President Mahmoud Abbas, today a “second Nakba”.
“We have tried everything”
The Israeli minister also criticized the United Nations Organization for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in her forum. “Instead of sending money to rebuild Gaza or to the failing UNRWA, the international community can help finance the resettlement and help Gazans build their new lives in their new host countries,” Gila wrote to Gamliel.
“We tried many different solutions: withdrawal (of Gaza settlements), enrichment, conflict management and building high walls in the hope of keeping the monsters of Hamas out of Israel. “They all failed,” she said.