Politically and Militarily: How 'Israel' Is Rushing to Legitimize Trump’s Gaza Plan

Despite the conviction that US President Donald Trump’s plan to deport 2.1 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip abroad is not feasible, the Israeli government is seeking politically and militarily to pass practical measures to legitimize and implement it.

At the request of the Israeli government, the army began developing an action plan to prepare the Ashdod seaport, Ramon Airport, and land crossings for the gradual deportation of Palestinians, under conditions that ensure they will not return, such as: prohibiting the return of those who do not sign a pledge to reject terrorism.

As for the Ministry of Finance, they are studying the possibility of allocating a budget to cover the costs of deportation, including allocating compensation funds to those who agree to leave, on condition that they pledge to waive the right of return.

Historical records show that as far back as 1967, Israeli leaders discussed emptying out Gaza.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol once suggested that depriving Palestinians of water would force them to leave, while former Army Minister Moshe Dayan argued that only a fraction of Gaza’s population should be allowed to remain.

Today, figures such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir are echoing those same ideas, repackaging forced displacement as a voluntary migration initiative.

Practical Steps

The head of the Otzma Yehudit party, Itamar Ben Gvir, has proposed a special bill to implement the plan to deport Gazans. 

Discussions on it were supposed to begin this week in the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked him to postpone it for two weeks so that he could make the necessary preparations.

According to Channel 12, Ben Gvir agreed to the postponement because he saw the seriousness of Netanyahu’s approach.

But Ben Gvir asked not to wait for the law, and to take measures now to push Palestinians to leave Gaza, as part of encouraging the voluntary migration of Gaza residents, such as cutting off relief aid and fuel.

In a radio interview, he stressed the need to take practical steps, and not be satisfied with statements.

“We can’t always work under pressure. It’s true that standing up to the president of the United States is not easy, but I expected the prime minister to tell the truth instead of promoting stories,” he said.

Ben-Gvir’s bill would require Palestinians who agree to voluntarily leave the Gaza Strip to sign a statement that includes a pledge not to return in order to receive a package of economic aid.

In a related context, Bloomberg recently reported that Israeli Army Minister Israel Katz received a plan that includes choosing an air and sea exit for the Palestinians to leave Gaza.

The plan includes Palestinians who want to leave permanently traveling by bus to Ramon Airport, which is about 250 kilometers from the Gaza Strip, or to the Ashdod Port, which is located on the Mediterranean coast.

Bloomberg also noted that the new plan is based on the assumption that Egypt will continue to adhere to its position of refusing to receive Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

It is noteworthy that Katz had stressed that Gazans should be allowed to enjoy the freedom of exit and immigration as is customary everywhere in the world.

Unreal Plan

Despite the widespread celebration in “Israel” of Trump's plan for Gaza, doubts about its realism have increased, especially from the security institution, amid skepticism among other circles about its feasibility.

Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak said that he does not support talk of illusions, and it appears to be an attempt to shake the Arab rulers to force them to present a practical way to intervene in what is happening in Gaza.

Yair Golan, head of the Israeli Democratic Bloc, criticized Trump’s statements, saying, “They are good for headlines, but they are not good for reality.”

A Labor MK said the idea of transferring Palestinians from Gaza could be a nightmare for “Israel”.

Danny Ayalon, Israel’s former ambassador to the United States, said: “Trump changes his mind based on the last person he meets, and I hope he does not make the situation in the Middle East more volatile.”

Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Israeli military officials, during a closed meeting attended by Army Minister Israel Katz, questioned Trump’s plan to transfer Gaza residents and the possibility of implementing it.

The security officials saw Trump’s plan to transfer Palestinians from Gaza as something thrown into the air to create headlines related to the domestic agenda in “Israel”, and nothing more.

OC Military Intelligence Directorate Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder issued a warning about the proposal, warning that it could trigger violence in the West Bank.

Former Ground Forces Commander (res.) Maj. Gen. Guy Tzur said: “This is not a real plan, it’s just an empty statement. Israel cannot have its army expel Gazans via Egypt or by ship.”

Netanyahu's Pretext

Despite Netanyahu’s relative commitment to the ceasefire agreement, withdrawing his forces from the Netzarim axis in the Gaza Strip, and sending a delegation to the Doha negotiations on the second stage of the agreement, there is a prevailing Israeli feeling that he is planning to sabotage the negotiations.

Haaretz reported that Netanyahu will not commit to implementing the second stage of the agreement without eliminating Hamas, noting that Netanyahu and Trump will destroy the agreement together.

Another official, whose statements were published by the Maariv newspaper, said that Netanyahu committed to the agreement because he could not clash with President Trump, but he is setting traps and pitfalls for Hamas leaders, so that they fall into this clash, and he is using their actions as an excuse to evade the agreement.

According to Channel 12, the Israeli delegation that recently arrived in Doha is only authorized to discuss the continuation of the first phase of the deal, without addressing the second phase.

Reports attributed this to the fact that Netanyahu believes that the ceasefire was a bad option for him politically.

In turn, Palestinian journalist Iyad Hamad explained in a statement to Al-Estiklal that “even if the ceasefire continues in the second and third phases, and all the hostages are released, and the army withdraws from Gaza, Trump's plan will not disappear from Israeli Jewish policy early.”

“Once the American president proposes transfer as a solution to the Palestinian cause, and once all of Israel – from the right to the center and even the left – embraces it, the message to the Palestinians becomes clear: There is no possibility of reaching a settlement with Israel because it is determined to eliminate the Palestinian people,” he said.

Historical Projects

On the other hand, the right-wing Israeli website Mida published a report claiming that since October 7, 2023, the trend of migration from Gaza has increased significantly, including more than 115,000 people who moved to Egypt.

Demographic researcher Yaakov Feitelson said that Israeli statistics intersect with data from the United Nations and the US Census Bureau, showing that no less than 1,012,713 Arabs from the West Bank and Gaza Strip left Palestine between 1967 and 2024.

“This is a silent migration that is best encouraged, and vague statements should be avoided,” he added.

However, other research published in “Israel” warns against drowning in seas of false and illusory optimism about the deportation.

In an article by researcher Eli Ashkenazi published recently on the Walla website, he pointed out that since the end of January 1951, “Israel” has been preoccupied with a group of plans and projects to displace Palestinians from Gaza, by force or through temptations, but they failed.

He noted that “Israel” sought at the time a plan to settle refugees in Sinai, but it did not succeed, and then considered settling 20,000 Palestinians from Gaza in Libya and a similar number in Iraq, but it also did not succeed.

The Israeli researcher confirmed that President Trump was not the first US president to propose deportation.

In 1955, then-US President Dwight Eisenhower asked the House of Representatives to approve funding for an irrigation plan in Sinai in order to reclaim arable land for refugees who would move there, but the project later disappeared.

Also, there was an Israeli plan for deportation in 1956 (the year of the tripartite aggression against Egypt by Israel, France and Britain), in addition to many plans after the 1967 war, led by General Ariel Sharon.

But Sharon finally came to the conclusion that it was “Israel” that should leave Gaza, and so he carried out a unilateral withdrawal in the disengagement plan in 2005.

Yedioth Ahronoth revealed that “Israel” had previously implemented a secret plan but also failed in it. As it encouraged 60,000 Palestinians from Gaza to immigrate during the past decade through the Karameh Crossing (King Hussein Bridge), on the condition that they would not return to the Strip for several years, but most of them returned because they were unable to settle in the countries to which they went.

After October 7, 2023, “Israel” tried to forcibly displaced Palestinians from Gaza, as the Gaza war was a new station for talking about this, whether through statements from far-right ministers or Israeli security agencies.

In a document dated October 13, 2023, Israeli intelligence proposed three alternatives regarding the future of Palestinians in the Strip after the war, including a complete transfer to North Sinai.

It is noteworthy that in all those past stations, “Israel” left Gaza, but Gazans did not leave it, and now the US president has once again reached an idea that is decades old and seems unworkable or impossible at all.