Israel’s Ministry of Information has drawn up a proposal that envisages the transfer of the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million residents to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, a “conceptual document” that has already been criticized by Palestinian authorities.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has already downplayed the Information Ministry report, saying it is a “conceptual document,” the Associated Press (AP) reported.
The report’s conclusions brought back memories for Palestinians of their greatest trauma, the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people who fled or were forced from their homes during the fighting during Israel’s creation in 1948.
“We are against transfers anywhere, in any form, and we regard it as a red line that we will not allow to be crossed,” said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, in response to the report.
According to Palestinian authorities in Gaza, more than 8,000 Palestinians, the vast majority of whom are civilians, have been killed since Israel went to war against Hamas.
The document, dated October 13, six days after militants from the Islamist Hamas movement killed more than 1,400 people in southern Israel and took more than 220 hostages in an attack that provoked an Israeli assault on Gaza, was published for the first time published by Sicha Mekomit. , a news website.
The Ministry of Information presented three alternatives “to bring about a significant change in the civil reality in the Gaza Strip, in light of Hamas’s crimes.”
The document proposed moving Gaza’s civilian population to tent camps in northern Sinai and then building permanent cities and an undefined humanitarian corridor. According to the authors of the document, this was the most desirable alternative for Israel’s security.
A security zone would be established within Israel to prevent displaced Palestinians from entering, but the report does not mention what would happen to Gaza if its population were removed.
Egypt’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the Egyptians have made it clear during the last war that they have no intention of hosting a wave of Palestinian refugees.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sissi has previously stated that a massive flow of refugees from Gaza would eliminate the Palestinian nationalist cause and could mean the entry of militants into Sinai, where they could launch attacks on Israel, which would pose a danger. the 1979 peace treaty between the countries.
Al-Sissi suggested that Israel instead offer shelter to Palestinians in the Negev Desert, bordering the Gaza Strip, until it ends its military operations.
But Egypt would not necessarily be the last stop for Palestinian refugees, as the document states that Egypt, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates would support the plan, either financially or by welcoming displaced Gaza residents as refugees and, in the future, long term, as citizens.
This proposal “may be complicated in terms of international legitimacy,” the authors of the document further acknowledge, emphasizing, however, that “fighting after the evacuation of the population would lead to fewer civilian casualties compared to what would be expected if the population remained .”
The document rejects the other two options: restoring the Palestinian Authority, based in the West Bank, as sovereign in Gaza, or supporting a local regime. It rejects these partly because they are unable to deter attacks on Israel.
Source: DN
