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U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley, left, and Chris Van Hollen, right, listen to Major General Khaled Maghawer, governor of North Sinai, during their visit to Egypt’s side of the Rafah crossing with Gaza, in 2025. Credit: Mohammed Arafat/AP
U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley, left, and Chris Van Hollen, right, listen to Major General Khaled Maghawer, governor of North Sinai, during their visit to Egypt’s side of the Rafah crossing with Gaza, in 2025. Credit: Mohammed Arafat/AP
Senator Chris Van Hollen on Wednesday condemned Israeli defense minister Israel Katz for reiterating his call for Palestinians to emigrate from Gaza as a “solution” earlier that day.
Van Hollen referred in a post on X to a report titled “The Netanyahu Government is Implementing a Plan to Ethnically Cleanse Gaza of Palestinians,” which he released last year with Senator Jeff Merkley after visiting Gaza’s border with Egypt.
“Now the Israeli Minister of Defense confirmed that’s the goal. We must end our complicity,” Van Hollen wrote.
In the report the senators published last year, they categorize Israel’s policy in Gaza as ethnic cleansing.
The report criticized past statements by Israeli officials about Palestinians leaving Gaza voluntarily. “Any talk of ‘voluntary departures’ is a cruel hoax,” the report read. “Departure is not ‘voluntary’ when the conditions needed to support life are extinguished.”
After our trip to the Gaza-Egypt border last year, @SenJeffMerkley & I released a report entitled, “The Netanyahu Government is Implementing a Plan to Ethnically Cleanse Gaza of Palestinians.”
Now the Israeli Min of Defense confirmed that’s the goal.
We must end our
Speaking Wednesday at a conference hosted by Israeli news site Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth, Katz said that Israel is “fully organized and prepared” to move Palestinians out of Gaza “if it becomes possible.”
Katz added the “accepting countries want U.S. support. Every country that is willing to accept Gazans wants American backing,” adding that U.S. President Donald Trump “didn’t cancel the plan at the moment; he has frozen it,” amid pressure from “all the Arab countries.”
Katz, who said that Egypt had pressured the Trump administration to oppose the emigration plan, also said that “it is being discussed all the time, including now, and I think that in the end, there is no other solution that will serve everyone’s interests.”
“80 percent of Gazans would like to emigrate, and we’re checking that all the time in the polls. For this to happen, we need the United States – and the moment will come when it becomes clear that Hamas is not honoring its commitments. Then we will get the green light to move forward militarily, territorially and in other areas as well,” Katz added.
Trump, who initially backed the permanent displacement of Palestinians from Gaza before the 20-point plan was announced in October, had since drawn back from the idea.
The new head of Israel’s National Security Council, Shmuel Ben Ezra, convened defense establishment officials last month for an urgent meeting on the issue of “encouraging the voluntary emigration” of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
In a meeting attended by IDF and Shin Bet security service officials, Mossad officials said that no countries had been found that were willing to take in Gazans, and that there were no new developments around this issue. Officials were surprised at the short notice given by Ben Ezra, and that the issue was brought up again, since it had been discussed several times without any progress being made.
In March 2025, Israel’s security cabinet approved the establishment of a “directorate for the voluntary emigration of Gaza residents.” Its establishment was loudly proclaimed by Defense Minister Israel Katz with the purpose of preparing overland, maritime and aerial routes to third countries. But since its establishment no practical moves have been taken by the directorate, as far as is known. There were earlier reports of independent initiatives by right-wing organizations and nonprofit groups, but these involved insignificant numbers in comparison to Gaza’s population.