U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on Saturday there were no plans to forcibly remove Palestinians from Gaza, following proposals by two Israeli ministers for the territory’s population to leave.
Speaking to reporters in Turmus Ayya, a Palestinian town in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Huckabee said Israel did not intend to displace Gaza residents against their will.
“I can tell you categorically there is no plan of the Israelis to displace people out of Gaza against their will,” he said.
Huckabee argued that Palestinians who wanted to leave should be allowed to do so, saying it would be wrong to require people to remain somewhere they wished to leave. He maintained that neither Israel nor the United States supported forced displacement.
His remarks followed statements this week by Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz and far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir advocating the departure of Palestinians from Gaza.
Katz said on Wednesday that there was “no real solution for Gaza in the end without this migration.”
Ben-Gvir on Thursday outlined a seven-year plan to remove Gaza’s population through what he called “voluntary emigration.”
The statements come ahead of Israel’s general election, scheduled for October 27.
