In an unusual public display of disagreement with Israel, the United States rejected calls from Israeli officials to remove Palestinians from Gaza.
In response to a question about Defense Minister Israel Katz calling for depopulation of the Gaza Strip as the only “solution” to the crisis, the US State Department reiterated the US government’s commitment to President Donald Trump’s 20-point “peace plan” that established a “ceasefire” last year.
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“As articulated in Section 12 of the President’s Plan, ‘no one will be forced to leave Gaza, and those who wish to leave will be free to leave and free to return. We will encourage people to stay and provide opportunities to build a better Gaza,'” a State Department spokesperson told Al Jazeera in a statement on Friday.
“The United States does not support any plans or proposals regarding the forced eviction, expulsion, or deportation of Gaza residents,” the spokesperson said.
Katz said Trump was only “freezing” but not revoking support for removing Palestinians from the territory, a proposal that advocacy groups say amounts to ethnic cleansing.
“At the end of the day, there is no real solution for Gaza without this migration,” Katz said Wednesday.
Israeli authorities use “migration” as a euphemism for depopulating Gaza.
Katz said the Israeli government is prepared to expel Palestinians from Gaza “by sea, by air, by any means possible” and that the idea remains “constantly under discussion.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir echoed Katz’s comments the next day.
“Rather than harboring illusions of peace, we need to act now, by migrating,” Ben Gvir said. “It’s time for[Palestinians]to pack suitcases instead of digging tunnels.”
Arab countries, including some close allies of the United States, forcefully reject any efforts to remove Palestinians from their territory.
The White House referred Al Jazeera to a social media post from President Trump celebrating the Hamas disarmament agreement in August.
The agreement includes Israel’s gradual withdrawal from Gaza and an end to near-daily deadly attacks on the area.
But Israel rejected the offer, saying it would not make any concessions until Gaza was completely demilitarized.
Last year, President Trump sparked international outrage when he first said he would ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip, home to about 2 million people, and turn the enclave into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
He has proposed a 20-point plan to end the conflict, which he is expected to drop in the second half of 2025.
Hamas and Israel agreed to President Trump’s ceasefire agreement in October last year, but Israel continues to bombard Palestinian territory.
Jared Kushner, the US special envoy and President Trump’s son-in-law, met with Hamas officials and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month to try to resolve the crisis.
But Mr Kushner appeared to adopt the Israeli government’s position, saying there would be no rebuilding of the Gaza Strip until Hamas was disarmed. He also stressed that the United States will not “restrict Israel’s right to self-defense” amid continued Israeli attacks in Gaza.
Despite Hamas agreeing to give up its weapons, President Trump’s “ceasefire” plan has made little progress.
Negotiations could be further complicated by Israeli authorities’ insistence on removing Palestinians from Gaza.
“Any movement must be strictly voluntary, and we remain focused on the demilitarization, stabilization, and redevelopment of Gaza for the benefit of its population,” the State Department told Al Jazeera.
“Furthermore, Article 20 commits the United States to establishing dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous coexistence.”
The United States has provided more than $25 billion to Israel since it began its genocidal war in the Gaza Strip in October 2023.
Yousef Munayer, director of the Palestinian/Israel program at the Arab Center in Washington, D.C., said the lack of progress toward peace is because Israelis “have come to the conclusion that coexistence with the Palestinians is not possible in this space.”
He warned that Palestinian ethnic cleansing is spreading beyond Gaza to Palestinian populations in the West Bank and Israel.
“They do not want to live with Palestinians in any way,” Munayer told Al Jazeera.
“They can’t think of a solution to the fundamental problem of having an entire indigenous population imposed on them and against them other than by eliminating that population,” Munayer said.
