Likud minister: Gaza will be unviable post-war; Palestinians will ‘voluntary migrate’ from West Bank too

Science and Technology Minister Gila Gamliel of the ruling Likud party tells Channel 12’s “Meet the Press” that Gaza will be uninhabitable following the end of Israel’s military operation against Hamas.

Gaza “will ultimately not be a source of viable habitation,” Gamliel says. “The Strip today [already] has no potential for viability.”

She goes on to promote her plan for the “voluntary migration” of Gazans, which critics have said is a euphemism for ethnically cleansing Palestinians from the Strip, arguing that Israel is intentionally making the Strip uninhabitable so that Palestinians will have no choice but to leave.

“What’s genocidal about voluntary migration. It has the word ‘voluntary’ in it,” Gamliel retorts, adding that 140,000 Palestinians have already left the Strip since the start of the war.

גילה גמליאל בפגוש את העיתונות: ״נהפוך את רצועת עזה ללא ראויה למגורי אדם עד שהאוכלוסיה תעזוב, ואותו דבר יקרה גם ביהודה ושומרון״. זו מטרת המלחמה לא רק של בן גביר אלא של הממשלה כולה ושל העומד בראשה. תזכרו את זה בפעם הבאה שמדברים על ״הגירה מרצון״. לתשומת ליבכם @IntlCrimCourt pic.twitter.com/k3v9C6YBUE

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“My voluntary migration plan is feasible, and it will get underway,” she tells Channel 12.

Gamliel says Israel will build buildings for those who emigrate and claims there are countries willing to take in Gazans, without identifying any.

“There must be voluntary migration in order for us to fulfill the war aim of ensuring that Gaza does not pose a threat to Israel in the future,” she says.

“I am even optimistic that [there will be voluntary migration from] Judea and Samaria and not just from the Gaza Strip,” Gamliel says, using the biblical term for the West Bank.

“Just as we’re not interested in this Palestinian Authority being in Gaza after the war, there is no reason for it to be here in Judea and Samaria,” she says.