What's Happening With Israel's Plan to Move Palestinians Out of Gaza?
A top Israeli official wants to move all Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip and has written a plan for doing it. The official, Itamar Ben-Gvir, is Israel's national security minister and a member of the country's far-right political wing. His plan calls for moving 250,000 Palestinians out of Gaza in the first year and the rest of the territory's roughly 2 million people over the next six years. He laid out the proposal in a 20-page document and talked about it at a rally in the Israeli city of Netanya this week (The Guardian, 2026-09-03).
Ben-Gvir called the plan "realistic" and said there are countries "ready" to take in Palestinians from Gaza, but he did not name any of them. He also said his political party, called Jewish Power, would demand a new government department focused on emigration (leaving one's country to live elsewhere) when the next Israeli government is formed. Israeli elections are set for October, and polls suggest Jewish Power would win about seven seats in the Knesset, which is Israel's parliament (The Guardian, 2026-09-03).
The plan comes at a moment when other Israeli leaders are already pushing in the same direction. Israel's defence minister, Israel Katz, said at a conference hosted by the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth that Israel was seeking approval from the Trump administration to move Palestinians out of Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited a military outpost in Gaza on Wednesday and said Israel would not leave the parts of Gaza it currently controls (The Guardian, 2026-09-03).
Netanyahu has held this position for some time. In early August, he said Israel will not withdraw from Gaza until Hamas fully disarms. That stance rejects a plan from the Trump administration whose 15 points call for Hamas to lay down its weapons as Israel pulls out of the territory (Reuters, 2026-08-09; Reuters, 2026-08-10). Under the Gaza ceasefire deal (a temporary halt in fighting), Israel's military was supposed to stay in control of 53% of Gaza, but Netanyahu has said Israel would expand that area. Hamas called that a "dangerous escalation" (Reuters, 2026-05-29). In August, Trump's envoys met with mediators while Israel carried out strikes in Gaza, hitting two Islamic Jihad and Hamas militants in Khan Younis and Nuseirat and killing at least five people (Reuters, 2026-08-16).
Ben-Gvir's plan is part of a pattern of increasingly extreme statements from him. Days before the Netanya rally, CNN reported that Ben-Gvir boasted about the construction of a new gallows for hanging Palestinians (CNN, 2026-08-27). Earlier in August, Ben-Gvir called for killing "30 to 40" Palestinians during comments on a podcast hosted by an Israeli who had been taken hostage by Hamas (YouTube, 2026-08-20). German lawmakers responded by calling for European Union sanctions (official penalties, like trade restrictions) against Ben-Gvir over those remarks. According to the news outlet Drop Site News, Israel remains prepared to forcibly remove Palestinians from Gaza "by sea, by air, by every way possible," and claims 80% of Palestinians want to leave (Drop Site News).
Human Rights Watch, an international watchdog organization, said in May 2025 that Israel's latest plan for Gaza "inches closer to extermination," involving the demolition of what remains of Gaza's civilian buildings and roads and the crowding of the Palestinian population into smaller areas (HRW, 2025-05-15). Netanyahu, at a government meeting in January 2026, said the essential condition in Gaza is that Hamas disarms and there is no other option (Israeli government, 2026-01-04).
Israel's parliament, the Knesset, has also been passing laws that point in the same direction. A bill proposed there would allow the Minister of Interior, after holding a hearing, to order the deportation (forced removal from the country) of a family member of someone involved in terrorism (Knesset, 2024-10-30). The Knesset's stated war goals include taking down the Hamas government in Gaza (Knesset, 2024-06-03).
The broader context here is that different parts of Israel's government are all moving toward the same goal. Ben-Gvir's plan, Katz seeking U.S. approval for displacement, Netanyahu's refusal to withdraw, and the Knesset's new laws all point in one direction: reducing or removing the Palestinian population from Gaza as actual policy, not just talk. Whether any other country will actually accept large numbers of Palestinians is still unknown. Ben-Gvir's claim that unnamed countries are ready, and the Drop Site News claim that 80% want to leave, are statements that no outside source has independently confirmed.
For Netanyahu, the October election sharpens the political math. Jewish Power's projected seven seats may not sound like much, but Israel's parliament is split among many parties, and no single group usually has a majority. That means small parties can gain outsized influence when it comes time to build a coalition government. If Ben-Gvir pushes his demand for a government ministry focused on emigration during those coalition talks, displacement could become an official function of the state, not just one minister's personal campaign.
