Israel seizes on Trump's Gaza 'takeover' plan, orders military to prepare for 'voluntary' Palestinian expulsion

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that countries denouncing President Donald Trump's comments on Gaza should step forward and help the battered Palestinian territory.

Arab countries and Palestinian leaders have voiced strong opposition to Trump's suggestion that the two million residents of Gaza move out after the devastating war.

Rubio again insisted that Trump was offering reconstruction as Gaza for now is "uninhabitable."

He said Trump's controversial remarks were aimed in part to encourage other countries that "have both the economic and technological capacity" to help as well with rebuilding.

"President Trump has offered to go in and be a part of that solution," Rubio told reporters in the Dominican Republic.

"If some other countries are willing to step forward and do it themselves, that would be great, but no one seems to be rushing forward to do that," he said.

"There are countries in the region who express a lot of concern about the Palestinian people.

"We encourage them to step forward and find a solution and answer to their problem."

Benjamin Netanyahu, during his meetings in Washington, presented a plan for ending the war in Gaza in return for Hamas giving up power and its leaders leaving the Palestinian territory, Axios reports.

Netanyahu told US officials that he wants to extend the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal in order to release more hostages, the outlet said, citing sources. In exchange for additional hostages, Israel would be ready to release more Palestinian prisoners, it said.

The report said Netanyahu indicated that if the first phase is extended, he plans to present Hamas with a proposal that includes ending the war in Gaza and releasing “senior” Palestinian prisoners.

An Israeli military court has sentenced a soldier to seven months in prison after he admitted to “severely abusing” Palestinians at a detention facility near the Gaza border, the army announced, according to Al Jazeera.

“The defendant was convicted for several incidents in which he punched the detainees with his fists and used his weapon while they were handcuffed and blindfolded,” the Israeli army stated.

“These acts were committed in the presence of other soldiers, some of whom called on him to stop, and were even documented on the defendant’s mobile phone,” the statement continued, referring to the incidents that took place at the Sde Teiman facility.

The military court also found that “additional masked soldiers participated in the abuse,” but noted that their identities remain unknown.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that U.S. President Donald Trump's remarks about resettling the Palestinians from Gaza and establishing U.S. ownership of the Strip were shocking and would ramp up tensions in the Middle East.

"The main thing now is to provide the necessary humanitarian assistance to all those in need," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters. "We believe that the main task today is to ensure the implementation of agreements between Israel and Hamas."

"Any populist, frivolous, or shocking arguments about any other palliative measures at the present stage are counterproductive and do not contribute to solving the problem, but only fuel tension in the region and to all the already extremely aggravated problems," Zakharova said of Trump's remarks. 

Egypt on Thursday said Israeli support for US President Donald Trump's plan to displace Gazans "weakens and destroys the negotiations on a ceasefire agreement and incites a return to fighting".

The statement from truce mediator Egypt's foreign ministry referred to "statements issued today by a number of members of the Israeli government", without naming them.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz had earlier on Thursday instructed the military to formulate a plan for Palestinians to leave Gaza, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the proposal "remarkable".

Egypt said the plan "constitutes a blatant and flagrant violation of international law... and infringes on the most basic rights of the Palestinian people".

Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Thursday, during a press conference with his Italian counterpart, that Israel does not yet have details on US President Donald Trump's plan for Gaza.

US President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Thursday to sanction the International Criminal Court (ICC) for targeting the United States and its allies, such as Israel, a White House official said.

The order will place financial and visa sanctions on individuals and their family members who assist in ICC investigations of US citizens or US allies, said the official.

The executive order will enable Trump to bypass Congress, which last month blocked legislation authorising sanctions on the international court.

The legislation was triggered by the ICC's decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Israel is preventing essential equipment such as medical devices and electricity generators from entering the Gaza Strip, putting it in breach of the ceasefire agreement, according to Al Jazeera Arabic.

Munir al-Bursh, the director-general of the Gaza health ministry, told the Qatari network that Israel is delaying the entry of fuel and medical supplies such as oxygen. 

The Gaza Civil Defence said that no mobile homes or heavy equipment have been allowed to enter.

"There is Israeli intransigence and procrastination in bringing equipment into the strip," a spokesperson for the rescue organisation said.

“Mediators must intervene immediately to persuade Israel to allow the entry of equipment and fuel."

Egypt rejects and will not be part of any proposal to displace Palestinians from Gaza, its foreign ministry said on Thursday, following President Donald Trump's plan for the US to take over the enclave and his call to Egypt to take in Palestinians.

Egypt also denounced expressions of support by Israeli cabinet members for the plan, which it said would be a "flagrant violation of international law".

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz ordered the army this morning to prepare a plan to allow for the "voluntary" expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza.

"Egypt stresses the catastrophic consequences of this irresponsible act which weakens the ceasefire negotiations, and would squash them and incite a return of fighting," the ministry said.

US President Donald Trump's plan to take over Gaza and displace its people is a "declaration of intent to occupy" the Palestinian territory, Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem has said.

"Gaza is for its people and they will not leave," Qassem said, describing the plan as "absolutely unacceptable".

The Palestinian group also called for "an urgent Arab summit to confront the displacement" of Palestinians from Gaza, Qassem said in a statement.

"We do not need any country to run the Gaza Strip and we do not accept replacing one occupation with another.

"We call on the Arab peoples and international organisations to take strong action to reject the Trump project."

US president Donald Trump's plan to take over Gaza and expel the Palestinian population are "shocking" and will fuel further conflict in the region, Russia's foreign ministry said today.

"Any populist, frivolous, or shocking arguments about any other palliative measures at the present stage are counterproductive and do not contribute to solving the problem, but only fuel tension in the region and to all the already extremely aggravated problems," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters.

"The main thing now is to provide the necessary humanitarian assistance to all those in need ... We believe that the main task today is to ensure the implementation of agreements between Israel and Hamas."

A powerful storm has battered Gaza displacement camps, flooding makeshift shelters, destroying tents, and leaving thousands of displaced families exposed to freezing temperatures and worsening humanitarian conditions.

Floodwaters swallowed hundreds of fragile tents, while howling winds ripped others from the ground, leaving families with nothing but open sky above them.

In the overcrowded refugee camps, home to more than 1.5 million displaced people, despair lingers as heavily as the bitter cold that grips the land.

With no protection from the relentless rain and biting wind, families huddled together in the open, shivering through a night that offered neither warmth nor relief.

Read the full story here.

Adam Coogle, deputy Middle East director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch, says it is unclear if Trump's plan will be implemented, but that the statement of intent was "very concerning".

"If it were to transform into state policy, it would potentially amount to ethnic cleansing. And if done with intent, it would be forced displacement. And if that forced displacement was done as part of a systematic and widespread attack against the civilian population as a matter of state policy, it would actually be a crime against humanity," he said.

Trump and Israeli officials who support the plan portray it as voluntary migration and have called on other countries to absorb Palestinians who want to leave. Palestinians insist they want to stay in their homeland and fear Israel would never allow them to return.

Coogle said countries are obliged to consider individual applications for asylum, but "do not have an obligation to participate in the forced displacement of the entire population of the Gaza Strip"

More from Albanese:

"Trump is destroying the basic principles of respect for human rights across a huge spectrum, not just in Palestine... We have moved further towards the abyss," the UN rapporteur told Reuters when asked to comment on Trump's Gaza plan.

"I'm surprised that European states are staying silent instead of rising up and saying,: 'This is utter nonsense, and we will not tolerate this'," she added.

Israel's decision to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council is "extremely serious", the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories has said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said earlier today his country had informed the agency that it was following the United States in withdrawing from the Council, accusing it "blatant antisemitism".

"It shows the hubris and the lack of realisation of what they have done. They insist in self-righteousness, that they have nothing to be held accountable for, and they are proving it to the entire international community," Francesca Albanese told Reuters.

Albanese said she feared Israel's genocide against the Palestinians would expand and intensify on the West Bank, which Palestinians want along with Gaza as the core of a future independent state.

Gaza health authorities have raised the death toll from Israel's 15-month assault to 47,583.

The number of people wounded is now at 111,633, the Gaza Health Ministry said today.

Ireland's Foreign Ministry rejected a suggestion by Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz earlier today that the country should accept displaced Palestinians from Gaza.

"The objective must be a massive scale up of aid into Gaza, return of basic services and a clear framework under which those displaced can return," the ministry said in an emailed statement.

"Any comments to the contrary are unhelpful and a source of distraction."

Katz claimed earlier today claimed that Ireland, Spain and Norway are "legally obligated" to take in Palestinians.

Arab nations will hold a summit in the coming days to discuss their response to Donald Trump's plan to take over Gaza and displace the Palestinian population, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported today, citing Arab sources. 

The discussion could lead to an Arab-American summit that could take place later this month in Saudi Arabia.

Israeli forces have forcibly displaced hundreds of Palestinians during a raid on a town in the north of the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera is reporting.

Soldiers reportedly forced the residents of Tammun to move at gunpoint and fired on an ambulance, sources told the Qatari state broadcaster.

Israel has imposed a siege on the town for the past five days and is preventing the entry of journalists and medical workers, they said.

Donald Trump said Israel will hand over Gaza to the US at the end of the war and appeared to rule out deploying US troops on Wednesday as his administration responds to global outrage triggered by his plan to occupy the territory.

"The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting," he wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.

The president framed his plan to expel Gaza's 2.2 million population into neighbouring countries in humanitarian terms, writing that Palestinians will be "happy, safe and free" in "more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes".

Gaza would become "one of the greatest and most spectacular developments of its kind on Earth" under American reconstruction efforts, he said.

"No soldiers by the US would be needed!"

Britain will oppose any efforts to move Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to neighbouring Arab states against their will, a foreign office minister said on Thursday.

"There must be no forced displacement of Palestinians, nor any reduction in the territory of the Gaza Strip," minister Anneliese Dodds told parliament.

Beijing opposes Donald Trump's push to expel Palestinians from Gaza and have the US take over the region, China's foreign ministry said on Thursday.

China firmly supports the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people, ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a regular press briefing.

Trump on Tuesday proposed a US takeover of Gaza and the expulsion of 2.2 million Palestinians from the territory in comments condemned around the world.

China is ready to work with the international community to take the two-state solution as the fundamental way out, and push for an early and just political settlement of the Palestinian issue, Guo said.

"Gaza is the Gaza of Palestinians, an integral part of the Palestinian territory, not a political bargaining chip, let alone the target of a law of the jungle," Guo said.

Israel's far-right settlements minister has lauded Donald Trump's plan to expel Palestinians from Gaza and occupy the territory as ushering in a "new era" for Israel.

The Biden administration "tied our hands with an arms embargo and severely harmed our soldiers," Orit Strook told Israel's Army Radio. 

“We are on the way to a new era in Gaza with an absolutely great fighting capacity,” she said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Wednesday accused the UN Human Rights Council of anti-Semitism as he announced Israel would boycott of the United Nations body.

"This body has focused on attacking a democratic country and propagating anti-Semitism, instead of promoting human rights," Saar said in a post on X.

The announcement came hours after Donald Trump said the US would leave the organisation.

Read more here.

Egypt has told the Trump administration and Israel that it will resist any attempt to displace Palestinians from Gaza into its territory and warned that the peace deal with Israel is at risk, according to The Associated Press.

One Egyptian official said the message has been delivered to the Pentagon, the State Department and members of the US Congress. A second official said it has also been conveyed to Israel and its Western European allies, including Britain, France and Germany.

Trump has several times publicly called on Egypt and Jordan to absorb the 2.2 million Palestinians living in Gaza, which under a plan announced on Tuesday would see the US occupy the territory and expel the population.

Egypt's president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi publicly ruled out accepting people from Gaza last week, saying that displacing the Palestinians is "an injustice that we cannot participate in".

A Western diplomat in Cairo, also speaking anonymously because the discussions have not been made public, confirmed receiving the message from Egypt through multiple channels. The diplomat said Egypt was very serious and viewed the plan as a threat to its national security.

The diplomat said Egypt rejected similar proposals from the Biden administration and European countries early in the war. The earlier proposals were broached privately, while Trump announced his plan at a White House press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

More than 10,000 aid trucks have crossed into Gaza since a fragile ceasefire took hold on January 19, the UN humanitarian chief said Thursday.

"We've moved over 10,000 trucks in the two weeks since the ceasefire, a massive surge," Tom Fletcher said on X, adding that he himself was about to cross into northern Gaza with a fresh aid convoy.

About to cross into Northern Gaza with a convoy of aid. We’ve moved over 10,000 trucks in the two weeks since the ceasefire, a massive surge.

Thank you to the many people making it possible to get these trucks of vital, lifesaving food, medicine, and tents through.

— Tom Fletcher (@UNReliefChief) February 6, 2025

The healthcare system in the occupied West Bank has been in "a state of perpetual emergency" since October 2023, the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) group said in a new report published on Thursday.

"A dramatic escalation in violence, marked by prolonged Israeli military incursions and stricter movement restrictions... have severely hindered access to essential services, particularly healthcare, exacerbating already dire living conditions for many Palestinians," it said.

Israel's defence minster said Palestinians in Gaza should be expelled to countries in Europe during his announcement that he had ordered the military to prepare for the 'voluntary' expulsion of the population.

"Countries such as Spain, Ireland, Norway, and others, which have falsely accused Israel over its actions in Gaza, are legally obligated to allow Gazans to enter their territory. Their hypocrisy will be exposed if they refuse," Israel Katz wrote in his inflammatory post. 

Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares on Thursday rejected the suggestion by Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz that Spain should accept displaced Palestinians from Gaza.

"Gazans' land is Gaza and Gaza must be part of the future Palestinian state," Albares said in an interview with Spanish radio station RNE.

Katz ordered the army on Thursday to prepare a plan to allow the "voluntary" expulsion of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

Officials in the Trump administration are trying to backpedal on the president's threat to "take over" Gaza following global outrage.

Trump on Tuesday declared his intention to "own" the Palestinian territory, expel its 2.2 million inhabitants, and rebuild it as a tourist destination for the "world's population".

He said that US military action was a possibility, saying he would deploy troops on the ground if it was "necessary".

At a press conference on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt sought to calm fears of an invasion of Gaza, telling reporters that American involvement "does not mean boots on the ground".

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Palestinians would only be expelled temporarily, framing it as an act of generosity towards the people of Gaza.

Israel's defence minister has ordered the military to begin preparations for the "voluntary" expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, seizing on Donald Trump's comments that he plans to "take over" the territory.

"I have instructed the IDF to prepare a plan that will allow any resident of Gaza who wishes to leave to do so, to any country willing to receive them," Israel Katz wrote in a post on X.

"The plan will include exit options via land crossings, as well as special arrangements for departure by sea and air."

Trump's declaration has been lauded across the Israeli political spectrum, especially among the far-right who are calling for a resumption for the war on Gaza and the expulsion of its population.

I have instructed the IDF to prepare a plan that will allow any resident of Gaza who wishes to leave to do so, to any country willing to receive them.

Hamas has used the residents of Gaza as human shields, built its terror infrastructure in the heart of the civilian population,…

— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) February 6, 2025