US rejects Israeli suggestions of removing Palestinians from Gaza

US State Department tells Al Jazeera that Washington ‘does not support any plan’ for the expulsion of Palestinians.

Palestinians walk amid the ruins of buildings destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City, August 17, [File: Jehad Alshrafi/AP Photo]

The United States has rejected calls by top Israeli officials that the Palestinians should be removed from Gaza in a rare public display of disagreement with Israel.

Asked about Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz’s call for de-populating Gaza as the only “solution” to the crisis, the US State Department reiterated Washington’s commitment to President Donald Trump’s 20-point “peace plan” that established the “ceasefire” last year.

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“As explicitly stated in Point 12 of the President’s plan: ‘No one will be forced to leave Gaza, and those who wish to leave will be free to do so and free to return. We will encourage people to stay and offer them the opportunity to build a better Gaza,'” a State Department spokesperson told Al Jazeera in a statement on Friday.

“The United States does not support any plan or proposal for the forced displacement, expulsion, or mandatory transfer of the population of Gaza,” the spokesperson said.

Katz had said that Trump had only “frozen” – not cancelled – his support for removing Palestinians from the territory – a proposal that rights advocates say would amount to ethnic cleansing.

“In the end, there is no real solution for Gaza without this migration,” Katz said on Wednesday.

Israeli officials have been using “migration” as a euphemism for de-populating Gaza.

Katz said the Israeli government is ready to get Palestinians out of Gaza “by sea, by air and by any means to do it” and the idea is still “being discussed all the time”.

Arab states, including some close allies of the US, have forcefully rejected any effort to remove Palestinians from their land.

The White House referred Al Jazeera to a social media post by Trump in August celebrating an agreement to disarm Hamas.

The deal would include gradual Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and an end to the almost daily deadly attacks on the territory.

But Israel rejected the proposal, saying that it would not make any concessions until Gaza is fully demilitarised.

美国国务院告诉半岛电视台，华盛顿“不支持任何驱逐巴勒斯坦人的计划”。

8月17日，巴勒斯坦人在加沙城被以色列空袭摧毁的建筑物废墟中行走。[图片：Jehad Alshrafi/AP Photo]

美国拒绝了以色列高级官员提出的将巴勒斯坦人撤出加沙的呼吁，这罕见地公开表示了与以色列的分歧。

当被问及以色列国防部长以色列·卡茨呼吁将加沙人口迁出作为解决危机的唯一“方案”时，美国国务院重申了华盛顿对唐纳德·特朗普总统去年提出的20点“和平计划”的承诺，该计划确立了“停火”。

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以色列在加沙杀害3人，极右翼部长计划驱逐巴勒斯坦人（共3条报道，此为第3条）

美国国务院发言人周五在一份声明中告诉半岛电视台：“正如总统计划第12点明确指出的那样：‘没有人会被迫离开加沙，那些想离开的人可以自由离开，也可以自由返回。我们将鼓励人们留下来，并为他们提供建设一个更美好加沙的机会。’”

发言人表示：“美国不支持任何强迫、驱逐或强制转移加沙人口的计划或提议。”

卡茨曾表示，特朗普只是“冻结”了——而不是取消了——他对将巴勒斯坦人从该地区驱逐出去的支持——人权倡导者称这一提议相当于种族清洗。

“归根结底，如果没有这种移民潮，加沙问题就没有真正的解决方案，”卡茨周三表示。

以色列官员一直用“移民”作为减少加沙人口的委婉说法。

卡茨表示，以色列政府准备“通过海路、空路以及任何方式”将巴勒斯坦人撤出加沙，而且这一想法“一直在被讨论”。

包括美国的一些亲密盟友在内的阿拉伯国家强烈反对任何将巴勒斯坦人驱逐出其土地的企图。

白宫向半岛电视台提及特朗普8月份在社交媒体上发布的一条帖子，该帖子庆祝了解除哈马斯武装的协议。

该协议将包括以色列逐步从加沙撤军，并停止几乎每天对该地区发生的致命袭击。

但以色列拒绝了这一提议，称在加沙完全非军事化之前，不会做出任何让步。