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No forced displacement
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told reporters in Turmus Ayya, a Palestinian town in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, that there is “no plan of the Israelis to displace people out of Gaza against their will.”
“I can tell you categorically there is no plan of the Israelis to displace people out of Gaza against their will”
Huckabee said there was “an open-mindedness (that) if people wish to leave that they should have the right to leave,” while adding that “To incarcerate them in a place they don't want to be should be an absolute, I think, just disgrace.”
His comments came after Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Wednesday there was “no real solution for Gaza in the end without this migration,” and after National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir outlined a seven-year plan for removing Gaza's population through what he described as “voluntary emigration.”
The debate over Gaza’s future is set against Israel’s general election on October 27, with Huckabee’s denial of forced displacement appearing alongside Israeli ministers’ relocation proposals.
Condemnations by eight states
Foreign ministers of eight countries including Türkiye and Egypt condemned statements by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Defence Minister Israel Katz about displacement of Palestinians from Gaza, warning that such rhetoric violates international law.
In a joint statement released by the Turkish Foreign Ministry, the ministers said, “Such inflammatory statements and proposals flagrantly violate principles of international law, including international humanitarian law, and pose a direct threat to the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.”
The same condemnation was echoed in a separate report that said eight Arab and Muslim countries rejected any forced displacement “within or outside the Occupied Palestinian Territory, regardless of the stated justification.”
The condemnations also tied the issue to US President Donald Trump’s comprehensive plan to end the Gaza conflict, which the foreign ministers said explicitly rejects forced displacement.
What is at stake
The foreign ministers warned that turning calls for forced displacement into official policy or concrete measures to uproot Palestinians would have “serious regional consequences,” and they urged the international community to confront attempts to establish a new demographic or geographic reality in the occupied Palestinian territory.
“Such actions, they said, would directly challenge international efforts to achieve peace”
They also reaffirmed that Gaza is an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territory and called for preserving Palestinian territorial unity across Gaza and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
In parallel, the Al-Monitor report framed Huckabee’s position as rejecting forced displacement while allowing that people who wish to leave should have the right to leave, with “Nobody is suggesting that there will be forced displacement.”
With Israel’s election on October 27 approaching, the dispute over relocation proposals—whether described as “voluntary emigration” or condemned as forced displacement—remains central to how regional governments and the United States define the next phase of Gaza’s future.