Israeli officials discuss renewed push to expel Palestinians from Gaza
Senior Israeli security officials met on Tuesday to discuss the possibility of expelling Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, despite repeated previous failures to advance such plans, according to Haaretz.
The Israeli daily reported that Shmuel Ben Ezra, head of the National Security Council, convened an urgent meeting with defence officials to discuss what was described as “encouraging voluntary emigration” from Gaza.
Officials from the Israeli army, Shin Bet and Mossad were among those invited.
During the meeting, Mossad representatives reportedly said the agency has not identified any country willing to accept Palestinians from Gaza.
Defence officials told Haaretz they were surprised by the urgency of the discussion, noting the issue has been raised repeatedly in the past without progress.
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"So far, we know of no country in the world that is willing to take in Palestinians who choose to leave the Gaza Strip," one official said. "We also don't know of any change that would enable such a move without complex coordination between international elements."
'There should not be any Arabs there at all'
- Nissim Vaturi, Likud lawmaker
A security source also told the paper it could not be ruled out that the renewed discussion formed part of a "compensation" package given to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by US President Donald Trump after the US-Iran agreement.
A member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee told Haaretz that any such plan lacks “political or international feasibility”, citing the opposition of Arab states and the wider international community.
The idea of forcibly removing Palestinians from Gaza has been repeatedly promoted in Israeli political discourse since October 2023.
Senior figures, including Netanyahu, ministers Israel Katz, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, have publicly supported the concept, while similar rhetoric has also appeared within the prime minister’s Likud party.
In 2025, Katz established the directorate for the "voluntary emigration" of Gaza residents within his ministry, with the Israeli defence minister saying last month that expulsion of the Palestinian population will happen at the appropriate time.
According to a poll last year by the Jewish People Policy Institute, over 70 percent of Likud voters supported the idea of expelling the Palestinian population from their homeland.
'They all need to be expelled'
In Israel, support for the expulsion of Palestinians is not limited to the Gaza Strip.
Nissim Vaturi, a Likud lawmaker, told Channel 14 News on Tuesday that Jewish Israelis "will not be able to live here in peace until we expel all the Arabs from this area", speaking about the occupied West Bank.
"There should not be any Arabs there at all," Vaturi, who is serving as deputy speaker of the Knesset, said.
"We need to strengthen Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria," Vaturi said, referring to the Israeli name for the West Bank, adding that "only in this way will we be able to live here in the Land of Israel".
ניסים ואטורי: "עכשיו צריך לדבר איפה מפנים ערבים ואיפה מיישבים יהודים. אין שום דרך אחרת. צריך לגרש את כולם מפה"
— yoav dekel (@YoYoavdekel) June 23, 2026
חבר כנסת מהליכוד בעד טרנספר. עוד הוכחה שאי אפשר היום להכניס סיכה בין הליכוד לעוצמה יהודית. pic.twitter.com/BAkVapmhvV
According to the deputy speaker, it is now necessary to discuss "where Arabs should be removed and where Jews should be settled".
"That's what needs to be done to strengthen Israel. There is no other way; they all need to be expelled from here," Vaturi added, referring to the Palestinians.
This is not the first time the Likud lawmaker has voiced his support for the expulsion of Palestinians. In November, he said that Meir Kahane, an ultranationalist rabbi who called for the expulsion of Palestinians from Israel, was right.
Vaturi has also declared that Israel needed to "separate the children and women and kill the adults in Gaza," and called to "burn Gaza" following the Hamas-led 7 October attack.
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