Netanyahu Sticks By Trump’s Brazen Proposal for Gazans to Leave

When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel visited the White House two months ago, President Trump sold him a brazen dream: The United States would take control of the Gaza Strip, relocate about two million Palestinians and turn the devastated seaside enclave into a glittering “riviera.”

This week, as the two leaders faced reporters again after meeting in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump appeared to have moved on, holding forth instead on U.S. border policy, his new tariffs, the plight of the hostages held in Gaza and the latest showstopper for Middle East policy — the opening of talks with Iran to curb its nuclear weapons program.

But Mr. Netanyahu did not let the Gaza idea — however unfeasible or potentially illegal — fade like a mirage. He raised it himself, saying that he and Mr. Trump had discussed the vision, including which countries might agree to accept Gazans.

Mr. Netanyahu and his government say they are serious about the idea but emphasize that they are speaking about facilitating the “voluntary” migration of Palestinians, in an apparent attempt to avoid any suggestion of ethnic cleansing. Critics say that it would hardly be voluntary if Gazans left, regardless, given that so many of their homes have been smashed to rubble.

Days after Mr. Trump’s original announcement, the Israeli defense minister, Israel Katz, said he was establishing a special administration within the ministry focused on voluntary migration from Gaza. In late March, he appointed a senior ministry official, Yaakov Blitshtein, to head it.

Mr. Netanyahu told the reporters on Monday at the Oval Office that Gaza was the only war zone where civilians were “locked in,” unable to leave.

“We didn’t lock them in,” he said, without acknowledging years of severe Israeli restrictions on movement in and out of the enclave for what the country says are security reasons, a longstanding Israeli naval blockade of the territory and Israel’s refusal to allow Gazans to live within its borders. Egypt also strictly controls its border with the enclave.

“It’s going to take years to rebuild Gaza,” Mr. Netanyahu said, referring to the vast destruction wrought by Israel’s 18-month campaign, which was ignited by the October 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. “In the meantime, people can have an option. The president has a vision. Countries are responding to that vision,” he added.

Israeli officials would not say which third countries they were talking to about taking in Palestinians. Mr. Trump had suggested regional neighbors like Jordan and Egypt. But he already appeared to be backing off from his relocation idea barely two weeks after proposing it, after those two countries flatly rejected the notion and said that peace could be achieved only by giving the Palestinians statehood.

Egypt has refused to take in large numbers of Palestinians during the war, fearing that their arrival would have a destabilizing effect and that ultimately they would not be allowed back into Gaza.

Mass displacement has fraught connotations in the region. About two-thirds of Gaza’s population is made up of Palestinian refugees who lost their homes during hostilities surrounding the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, and their descendants. At that time, about 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from what is now Israel in what is known by Palestinians as the Nakba, or “catastrophe.”

Some alternative names of potential hosts have been floated by Israelis, such as Somaliland, a self-declared breakaway republic in northwestern Somalia in the Horn of Africa, but they may appear less appealing than remaining in Gaza.

Still, several countries have agreed to take in limited numbers of Gazans for humanitarian reasons, including Romania and Italy, which have treated children with medical conditions. And on Wednesday, President Prabowo Subianto of Indonesia said his country was ready to offer temporary shelter to a first wave of around 1,000 medical evacuees from Gaza and children orphaned by the war there.

“We are ready to evacuate those who are injured or traumatized, and orphans,” he said as he was about to depart for a trip to the Middle East and Turkey. “We are ready to send planes to transport them,” he said, adding that the move was not meant for permanent resettlement.

When a reporter asked Mr. Trump on Monday if his Gaza emigration proposal was still on the table, he replied vaguely that it was “a concept that I had” and that people seemed to like, before passing the question over to Mr. Netanyahu.

Mr. Katz, the Israeli defense minister, said in a statement last month that Israel was “determined to realize the vision of U.S. President Donald Trump.” He said that checks by his ministry suggested that “at least 40 percent of Gaza’s residents are interested in migrating to other places.”

The administration, according to the statement, is supposed to ease exit routes by land, air and sea. But details remain scarce. The defense ministry declined requests for comment or information, as did the military’s department responsible for Palestinian civilian affairs and Israel’s population and borders authority.