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Ben-Gvir reiterates calls to encourage ‘voluntary migration’ of Palestinians from Gaza

December 20, 2024 at 12:04 pm

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir enters the district courtroom in Tel Aviv and addresses the media before the start of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hearing on December 10, 2024. [MENAHEM KAHANA/POOL/AFP via Getty Images]

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir yesterday called for the resettlement of the Gaza Strip and for Palestinians to be encouraged to “voluntarily migrate” and leave their land.

This came during a tour organised by the Nachala radical settler organisation at the Gaza fence, near the Netzarim axis in central Gaza.

Ben-Gvir claimed the Hamas cross-border infiltration of Israel on 7 October 2023 was the result of Israel’s “disengagement” from Gaza in 2005, adding that any prisoner swap deal agreed to now could mean leaving the Netzarim axis, which will pose a danger to Israel’s security and “give our enemies the image of victory”.

“Encouraging voluntary immigration [of the Palestinians] is a necessary step. We stand here and say clearly: It is forbidden to carry out this miserable step of leaving the Netzarim axis, and this will harm the [Israelis] security,” he claimed.

Limor Son Har-Melech, member of the Knesset from Ben-Gvir’s party, claimed Jewish settlements will be rebuilt in Gaza and that a wide and extensive resettlement is “the only optimistic vision that can comfort Israelis and ensure justice and security for Israel.”

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