Trump's Gaza plan: This is how Israel will do it - on this condition

Ruins of Khan Yunis. — Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90

Defense Minister Israel Katz has reportedly established a mechanism which will allow 2,500 Gazans to leave the Strip voluntarily, according to a report today (Thursday) by Israel Hayom.

Security sources have also informed Israel Hayom that there is a country interested in absorbing Palestinians who want to voluntarily relocate, but that it has frozen interest in the matter due to international pressure.

The idea is to allow Palestinians in Gaza to leave by sea via Israel's Ashdod port, by air via the Ramon airport, and by land via the Rafah crossing into Egypt and beyond.

The first two pathways have been used to evacuate the wounded for treatment, with some 1,500 having used it to relocate to third countries.

According to Israeli estimates, some 35,000 people have evacuated to Egypt since the beginning of the war, often using Egypt as a stepping stone to move elsewhere.

A security source told Israel Hayom that "our interest is to let as many people leave. This is the rationale of the Trump plan which Israel has supported. We are trying to implement it."

Amit Segal reported previously that there were three countries which the United States was talking to and which would serve as absorbing countries for Gazans voluntarily relocating: Somaliland, Puntland, and Morocco.

Somaliland and Puntland, both in east Africa, are majority Sunni Muslim territories which need American recognition as independent states, and Morocco needs American recognition of its control over the western Sahara. The hope was and might still be that these areas would agree to absorb Palestinians in exchange for that recognition.

Egypt has led the charge against the relocation program, bringing Arab states and Palestinian leaders together to propose a multi-year program which would rebuild the Strip without having to relocate a single Gazan, and which would be based on a technocratic transition government and billions of dollars in investment. President Trump has rejected this plan.