US rejects Israeli suggestions of removing Palestinians from Gaza

In a rare public display of disagreement with Israel, the United States has rejected calls by top Israeli officials that the Palestinian population should be removed from Gaza.

Asked about Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz’s call for de-populating Gaza as the only “solution” to the crisis, the US State Department reiterated Washington’s commitment to President Donald Trump’s 20-point “peace plan” that established the “ceasefire” last year.

“As explicitly stated in Point 12 of the President’s plan: ‘No one will be forced to leave Gaza and those who wish to leave will be free to do so and free to return. We will encourage people to stay and offer them the opportunity to build a better Gaza’,” a State Department spokesperson told Al Jazeera in a statement on Friday.

“The United States does not support any plan or proposal for the forced displacement, expulsion, or mandatory transfer of the population of Gaza,” the spokesperson said.

Katz had said that Trump had only “frozen” – not cancelled – his support for removing Palestinians from the territory, a proposal that rights advocates say would amount to ethnic cleansing.

“In the end, there is no real solution for Gaza without this migration,” Katz said on Wednesday.

Israeli officials have been using “migration” as a euphemism for de-populating Gaza.

Katz said the Israeli government is ready to get Palestinians out of Gaza “by sea, by air and by any means to do it” and the idea is still “being discussed all the time”.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir echoed Katz’s statements the following day.

“Instead of illusions of peace now, we need actions of emigration now,” Ben-Gvir said. “Instead of [Palestinians] digging tunnels, it’s time to pack suitcases.”

Arab states, including some close allies of the US, have forcefully rejected any effort to remove Palestinians from their land.

The White House referred Al Jazeera to a social media post by Trump in August celebrating an agreement to disarm Hamas.

The deal would include gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the almost daily deadly attacks on the territory.

But Israel rejected the proposal, saying that it would not make any concessions until Gaza is fully demilitarised.

Last year, Trump stirred international outrage when he first floated ethnically cleansing Gaza – home to around two million people – and turning the enclave into “the Riviera of the Middle East”.

He appeared to drop the proposal later in 2025 as he put forward his 20-point plan to end the conflict.

Both Hamas and Israel agreed to Trump’s ceasefire deal last October, but Israel has continued its bombardment of the Palestinian territory.

US envoy and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met Hamas officials and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month to help resolve the crisis.

But Kushner appeared to adopt the Israeli government position, saying that there would be no reconstruction in Gaza until Hamas is disarmed. He also stressed that the US would not “restrict Israel’s right to defend itself” amid continuing Israeli attacks in Gaza.

Despite Hamas agreeing to give up its weapons, little progress has been made on Trump’s “ceasefire” plan.

Israeli officials’ insistence on removing Palestinians from Gaza could further complicate the negotiations.

“Any movement must be strictly voluntary and our focus remains on the demilitarisation, stabilisation and redevelopment of Gaza for the benefit of its residents,” the State Department told Al Jazeera.

“Furthermore, Point 20 commits the United States to establishing a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous coexistence.”

The US has provided Israel with more than $25bn since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023.

Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel programme at the Arab Center Washington, DC, said the reason there has been no movement on peace is that Israelis have “come to the conclusion that there cannot be coexistence in this space with Palestinians”.

He warned that the push to ethnically cleanse Palestinians extends beyond Gaza to the West Bank and Palestinian citizens of Israel.

“They don’t want to live with Palestinians of any form,” Munayyer told Al Jazeera.

“They cannot wrap their heads around any sort of solution to the fundamental problem that they have – which is that they’ve antagonised an entire native population by imposing themselves on them – other than through the elimination of that population,” Munayyer said.