Israel ‘seeking Trump’s support for plan to expel Palestinians from Gaza’

Palestinian children queue to have their faces painted before an outdoor cartoon screening at a displacement camp in Gaza City. Photograph: Bilal Osama/APAImages/Shutterstock View image in fullscreen Palestinian children queue to have their faces painted before an outdoor cartoon screening at a displacement camp in Gaza City. Photograph: Bilal Osama/APAImages/Shutterstock Israel ‘seeking Trump’s support for plan to expel Palestinians from Gaza’ Defence minister says he believes US backing could tip regional balance in favour of forced resettlement Israel’s defence minister has said his country is seeking Donald Trump’s support to approve plans to expel Palestinians from the Gaza Strip in what has widely been condemned as a potential war crime. Israel Katz said there was “no real solution for Gaza in the end without this migration” during a conference hosted . He said the Israeli government was “organised and prepared to get them out by sea, by air, ”. Trump discussed a US takeover of the Gaza Strip in early 2025 that would have involved removing Palestinians from the territory, but has since pulled back from the idea. A 20-point peace plan the White House drew up last year did not call for Palestinians’ deportation, an act that would be widely seen as ethnic cleansing. View image in fullscreen Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said removal of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip was ‘being discussed all the time’. Photograph: Israeli Defence Ministry/ReutersKatz, however, said on Wednesday that he believed US support could tip regional opinion in favour of the forced resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza. He said Trump’s approval was crucial to convince neighbouring countries to accept Palestinian refugees. “Every country that is willing to take them in wants American backing,” he said. “Trump has not cancelled this at the moment. He has frozen it.” The White House did not immediately respond to a request from the Guardian for comment on whether Trump was continuing to hold discussions on Israel’s proposals to forcibly depopulate the Gaza Strip. Ed Miliband promises ‘comprehensive reset’ of UK policy toward Israel Katz pointed in particular to Egypt, which he said had lobbied Washington to oppose the forced removal of the Palestinian population. “It has not been cancelled,” he said. “It is being discussed all the time, including now, and I think there is no other solution in the end that is in everyone’s interest.” The remarks come during a competitive election season in Israel in which the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his rightwing allies have appealed to voters .