Status: 05.11.2023, 19:38 PM
By: Maximilian Kurz
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the airport before his departure. The U.S. spoke out against resettlement plans. © Jonathan Ernst/Reuters Pool/AP/dpa
According to senior diplomats, Israel is said to have tried to gain international support for the temporary resettlement of civilians from Gaza to Egypt.
Tel Aviv – Israeli diplomats have sought international support for a proposal, according to six senior foreign envoys. The idea was to temporarily transfer several hundred thousand civilians from Gaza to Egypt in the background of the war in Israel. This is reported by the US newspaper New York Times.
Israel proposal: Temporarily resettle Gazans in Egypt
Israel is said to have presented this idea to several foreign governments. The proposal was presented as a humanitarian measure to protect civilians from the dangers amid the war with Hamas in Gaza. It was also recommended that they possibly be housed in refugee camps in the Sinai Desert in Egypt.
Most countries, including the U.S. and the U.K., rejected the proposal. They feared that this mass displacement could become permanent, destabilizing Egypt and permanently displacing Palestinians from their homes.
"Forced resettlement" rejected by Egypt
The proposal was also rejected by the Palestinians. They suspected that Israel could use the war to permanently displace the more than two million people in Gaza. The bloody war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7 after terrorists from the extremist Palestinian group attacked Israel, killing about 1,400 people.
Historically, more than 1948,700 Palestinians had fled or been expelled from the country by 000. Many Arab countries now fear a similar disaster. Egypt has strongly opposed the idea of resettlement. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi stressed in a speech that Egypt rejects the "forced resettlement of Palestinians."
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Uncertainties about Gaza's future
However, some Israeli politicians, including Danny Danon, a member of the Likud party and former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, support the idea of temporarily relocating Gazans to Egypt. Danon added that the idea would require the approval of the Egyptian government, which controls the southern border of the Gaza Strip. Danny Danon, however, is not a member of the government and could not confirm whether Israel had asked foreign governments to support such a plan. According to him, by relocating the residents of Gaza, Israel would gain more space for the offensive against Hamas.
Despite Israel's official goals of removing Hamas from power and rescuing more than 240 civilians and soldiers, there are uncertainties about Gaza's future. Some officials suggested ceding Gaza to an international force that could then help rebuild the infrastructure. After reconstruction, the area could be handed over to the Palestinian Authority. The Palestinian Authority, in turn, declared that it would not take over the land unless Israel allowed the establishment of a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.