Far-right Israeli lawmaker praises Trump's comments on resettlement of Gazans

Israel’s far-right politician and former public security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir yesterday praised US President Donald Trump’s comment that Palestinians should be resettled outside of Gaza, calling it the “only solution”, Reuters has reported.

Ben-Gvir said on social media that “encouraging” Gazans to migrate from the enclave was the only correct strategy at the end of the war in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinians. He urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to adopt such a policy “immediately”.

The hard-line former minister, who is part of a political movement advocating for illegal Jewish settlement in Gaza, and two other ministers from his nationalist-religious party, resigned from Netanyahu’s cabinet last month over a landmark deal aimed at securing the release of hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails.

In comments made on Tuesday during a visit by Netanyahu to Washington, Trump raised the prospect of displacing the more than two million Palestinians living in Gaza, suggesting that it had become uninhabitable after nearly 16 months of Israel’s genocidal war.

Human rights advocates deplore such ideas, describing them as ethnic cleansing. Any forced displacement would likely be a violation of international law.

The initial six-week truce, agreed with Egyptian and Qatari mediators and backed by the US, has remained largely intact, but prospects for a durable settlement are unclear.

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