THE ISRAELI SECURITY Cabinet has approved the establishment of a “Voluntary Emigration Bureau” for Palestinians living in Gaza who are “interested in relocating to third countries”. 

Defence Minster Israel Katz announced the formation of the new body yesterday, saying its actions would be in line with Israeli and international law, while also saying it would be aligned with US President Donald Trump’s vision for the Palestinian territory. 

Katz has instructed the new bureau “to prepare for and facilitate the safe and supervised passage of Gazans for voluntary exit to third-party countries,” Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported. 

Trump has said he wants the US to “take over” Gaza and relocate its inhabitants to neighbouring Middle-Eastern countries such as Jordan and Egypt. Both Egypt and Jordan have flatly rejected the idea while observers have said the plan would amount to ethnic cleansing. 

“You can’t live in Gaza right now, you need another location,” Trump said during a visit from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington DC in early February.

“The Gaza thing has never worked,” he said, he said of the enclave that more than 2 million people call home.  

“If we could find the right piece of land, pieces of land, and build them some really nice places, I think that would be a lot better than going back to Gaza.”

Trump’s proposal to level the already devastated enclave was met with enthusiasm from members of the Israeli government, including Netanyahu, who called it “revolutionary”.  

Experts in international law have also said that anyone leaving the besieged Gaza Strip under such a scheme could not be said to have done so voluntarily, as to stay risks being killed by Israeli bombardment and ground operations, or famine and disease caused by the blockade and denial of humanitarian aid. 

Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip that was sparked by the deadly Hamas-led attack of October 2023 has now killed more than 50,000 people. 

More than 700 have been killed in Gaza since Israel resumed bombing on Tuesday last week, shattering a ceasefire with Hamas that had been in place since 19 January. 

The resumption of Israel’s war has been met with huge protests in Israel and accusations from the families of hostages who remain in Hamas captivity that their loved ones are being “sacrificed”. 

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