Palestinians set out to Khan Yunis with their belongings, from Rafah's Tel al-Sultan area after it was encircled by Israeli forces. AFP
The directorate, which will operate under the Ministry of Defence, will work on “enabling safe and controlled passage of Gaza residents for their voluntary departure to third countries, including securing their movement, establishing movement routes, checking pedestrians at designated crossings in the Gaza Strip, and coordinating the provision of infrastructure that will enable passage by land, sea, and air to the destination countries,” the defence ministry said in a statement.
The ministry did not name any third countries or confirm whether any have agreed to accept potential refugees.
Palestinians said they do not want to leave their homeland, and rights groups say the plan violates international law and the Geneva Conventions and amounts to ethnic cleansing.
Arab countries have repeatedly rejected the idea of displacing Palestinians from their homeland.
After facing objections from Egypt and Jordan, the United States and Israel discussed with three East African governments the forced displacement of Palestinians to Sudan and Somalia and its breakaway region of Somaliland, according to US and Israeli officials quoted by The Associated Press.
In early March, Egypt presented a $53 billion Arab-Islamic plan for Gaza reconstruction to the Arab Summit in Cairo in response to Trump’s outlandish scheme to take over the strip and displace its population to build a “Middle East Riviera.”
The idea of establishing an agency to facilitate the "voluntary" displacement of Palestinians was first proposed by the Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz in February after Israel expressed commitment to a US proposal to take over the Palestinian territory and expel its residents. However, it was not the first time Israel advocated for the displacement of the Palestinians, forced or voluntary.
Extremist Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and Shlomo Karhi, among other Israeli officials, have called for a complete military takeover of Gaza and the establishment of Israeli settlements. Ben-Gvir has urged for Gaza to be "repopulated with Jews," while Smotrich advocated for a permanent settler presence.
Displacement under fire!
Israel's occupation army ordered thousands of Palestinians to leave the heavily destroyed Tel al-Sultan neighbourhood in the southern city of Rafah. They walked to Muwasi, a sprawling area of squalid tent camps. The war has forced most of Gaza's population of over two million to flee within the territory, often multiple times.
“It’s displacement under fire,” Mustafa Gaber, a journalist who left with his family, told AP. He said tank and drone fire echoed nearby.
“The shells are falling among us and the bullets are (flying) above us," said Amal Nassar, also displaced. “The elderly have been thrown into the streets. An old woman was telling her son, ‘Go and leave me to die.’ Where will we go?”
“Enough is enough. We are exhausted,” said a fleeing Ayda Abu Shaer as smoke rose in the distance.
The Palestinian Red Crescent emergency service said it lost contact with a 10-member team responding to the strikes in Rafah. Spokesperson Nebal Farsakh said some were wounded.
Israel's army said it had fired on advancing “suspicious vehicles” and later discovered some were ambulances and fire trucks.
In Gaza City, an explosion hit next to a tent camp where people had been told to evacuate. “My husband is blind and started running barefoot, and my children were running,” witness Nidaa Hassuna told AP.
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