ISRAEL’S DEFENCE MINISTER said today that Ireland and other European states who have criticised his country’s war on the Gaza Strip are “legally obligated” to take in Palestinians from the devastated territory. 

“Countries such as Spain, Ireland, Norway, and others, which have falsely accused Israel over its actions in Gaza, are legally obligated to allow Gazans to enter their territory. Their hypocrisy will be exposed if they refuse,” Israel Katz said on X. 

Katz added that people in Gaza “should have the right to freedom of movement and migration, as is customary everywhere in the world”.

His comments came alongside an announcement that he had ordered the Israeli military to prepare a plan ”that will allow any resident of Gaza who wishes to leave to do so, to any country willing to receive them”. 

That instruction was made in light of US President Donald Trump’s stated intention to “take over” the Gaza Strip and forcibly displace its residents, a statement White House officials have since attempted to walk back.

International law experts have told The Journal that if Ireland were to accept refugees displaced from Gaza as part of Katz’s proposed plan, the government could risk being complicit in a war crime.

However, they also said that Ireland should adhere to its obligations under the Refugee Convention and accept asylum claims from any Palestinians who arrive on Irish shores. 

“The assertion that Ireland or other states that have protested Israel’s conduct in Gaza have a specific obligation to accept Palestinians sounds like political grandstanding rather than any kind of serious legal claim,” said Mike Becker, an assistant professor of international human rights law at Trinity College Dublin.

Legal implications

All state signatories to the UN Refugee Convention of 1951 – which include Ireland and Israel – are obligated to receive asylum seekers who arrive in their territory. 

If the Israeli plan to transfer people from Gaza to other countries went ahead though, states that assist in that transfer would risk being complicit in violating international law, explained Amnesty International’s Hussein Baoumi. 

This is because Israel would not be able not argue the trip had been made by Gazans voluntarily, due to the fact that Israel itself is responsible for creating the conditions that Gazans would be fleeing.

Essentially, the word voluntary implies a choice, but those leaving Gaza because the area lacks the basic infrastructure for human survival would be left with no choice.

As of November last year, around 70% of Gaza’s agricultural land has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN. The UN also estimates, based on satellite imagery, that 69% of the buildings in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, while only 16 of the territory’s 36 hospitals are partially functional.   

For a decision to leave for a country like Ireland to be voluntary, Baoumi said, Israel would have to allow more aid into the Gaza Strip, lift its crippling blockade on the territory and allow for the rebuilding of homes and infrastructure.  

Under international law, Israel has an obligation not to forcibly transfer people from territories under its control as an occupying power. If it committed to transferring people out of Gaza, “Israel would be in clear violation of international law,” said Baoumi. 

Nick Henderson, the CEO of the Irish Refugee Council, told The Journal that “Ireland has a responsibility to consider an application for asylum made on its territory”.

“In the past, Palestinian refugees who have received services from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)  have not been eligible for protection under the Refugee Convention due to Article 1D of the Convention which states that the Convention shall not apply to persons who are supported by the United Nations,” he said.

But now that UNRWA has been banned by Israel and its ability to operate in Gaza has been all but destroyed by Israel, “this is now in doubt”.

Henderson also said that “just as refugee law applies to Ireland, so does the principle that countries, including Israel, do not displace people”.

“Israel is the occupying power in Gaza and its conduct is governed by International Humanitarian Law. Under International Humanitarian Law, forcible transfer, which means the forced displacement of any civilian inside an occupied territory, is prohibited, and, if committed with criminal intent, is a war crime.”  

Baoumi added that if Ireland were to accept Gazans who had been forcibly displaced by Israel, the Irish government would risk becoming complicit in that crime.  

Mike Becker of Trinity College said: “Ireland should not enter into agreements with Israel to facilitate the unlawful forced transfer of the Palestinian population of Gaza. By the same token, Ireland should act consistently with its existing obligations under international protection law with respect to any Palestinians who might end up in Ireland.”

The language employed in Katz’s statement is an example of what Baoumi called  “humanitarian camouflage”, or as the Arabic saying goes, “poison in honey”. 

By this he means that Israel often attempts to “conceal criminal behaviour in the guise of a humanitarian cause”. 

In this case, he said Israel is trying to justify “the mass displacement and ethnic cleansing” of Gaza by cloaking it in the language of international legal principles. 

This inherent contradiction was exemplified by Katz’s statement that the people of Gaza should have freedom of movement and the ability to migrate, which Israel does not grant them as it is.

‘Open-air prison’ 

Even before the total siege of Gaza brought on by the latest war, people were blocked from leaving the strip by the Israeli military, except in extremely rare cases. 

Prior to the Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2023, which led the Israeli military to impose a total siege on the territory, the Gaza Strip had already been under a crippling blockade for over 15 years. 

Following the election of Hamas as the ruling party in Gaza in 2006, Israel imposed a blockade in 2007, preventing all travel into and out of the territory by air and sea, while heavily restricting access by land. 

According to Israeli human rights organisation B’tselem, under the blockade, Israel prohibits Palestinians from entering and leaving the area “except in extremely rare cases, which include urgent, life-threatening medical conditions and a very short list of merchants”.

In 2018, people in Gaza, many of whom are themselves refugees from the 1948 founding of Israel, attempted to return to the homes and land they had been forced from during the Nakba (catastrophe) on its 70th anniversary.

The Israeli military responded to the peaceful mass movement – dubbed the ‘Great March of Return’ – by firing on the crowd.

For these reasons, the Gaza Strip has been described as the world’s largest open-air prison. 

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