World
Israeli Officials Advance Gaza Displacement Plans as West Bank Demolitions and Deaths Continue
Senior Israeli officials intensified calls last week for the removal of Palestinians from Gaza, presenting formal timelines and government mechanisms for what critics describe as forced expulsion, even as displacement, demolitions and fatalities persisted across Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Speaking at a conference on Wednesday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said relocating Palestinians out of Gaza was "the only solution," stating Israel was prepared to carry this out "by sea, by air and by every way possible." Katz claimed US President Donald Trump had only "frozen," not abandoned, his backing for such a plan.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir subsequently introduced a seven-year initiative called "Disengagement 710," aimed at removing Gaza's approximately two million residents through what he termed "voluntary emigration." Ben-Gvir also said that if re-elected, he would create a Migration Ministry dedicated to expelling Palestinians.
The US State Department responded that it "does not support any plan or proposal for the forced displacement, expulsion, or mandatory transfer of the population of Gaza," though it did not directly criticize either Katz or Ben-Gvir.
Gaza's death toll continued rising amid near-daily Israeli strikes. An Israeli special forces raid near Gaza City's American hospital on Tuesday killed at least four Palestinians, including two children and a woman, and resulted in the capture of Moin al-Arabeed, whom Israel identified as head of Hamas's internal security.
A drone strike killed a child in Jabalia refugee camp on Wednesday, while an attack on a tent in Khan Younis killed another person the same day. On Thursday, Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinians, including a 13-year-old, near Beit Lahia after accusing them of entering an Israeli-controlled zone. A separate drone strike that day killed a man near a church compound in Gaza City's Remal neighborhood.
Attacks continued through the weekend. On Sunday, an Israeli strike near a school in Gaza City wounded several people, and a drone strike on a vehicle near the Hamid intersection killed Youssef Akila and his young daughter, Wafaa. Early Monday, at least five more Palestinians were killed, including three-year-old Saadi Ghalia, when an artillery shell hit a school sheltering displaced people in Deir el-Balah.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported Monday that 73,658 people have been killed and 174,622 wounded in Gaza since October 2023, following the addition of 160 newly confirmed deaths. More than 1,340 of these deaths have occurred since the October 2025 Israeli-Hamas ceasefire took effect.
Body recovery efforts continued alongside the ongoing violence. On Sunday, families in northern Gaza held funerals for roughly 100 people, including 60 children, whose remains were extracted from rubble in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighborhood, many belonging to the extended Malaka family. Gaza's civil defence chief, Raed al-Dahshan, told Al Jazeera that an estimated 8,000 additional bodies remain buried under rubble, and could be recovered within 90 days with proper heavy machinery—otherwise, he warned, the process could take years. Between 10,000 and 14,000 people are still believed missing beneath the debris.
Humanitarian conditions in Gaza continued to worsen due to insufficient aid. The World Health Organization reported that water contamination has nearly tripled since January, while the Palestinian Water Authority said all five of Gaza's wastewater treatment plants have ceased operating, resulting in roughly 55,000 cubic meters of untreated sewage being discharged daily.
In the West Bank, Israeli forces carried out extensive demolitions during the week. In Khirbet al-Tabban, part of Masafer Yatta, all 12 homes in the community were destroyed, leaving 70 people, including 30 children, homeless. Local council head Nidal Younis said the demolition amounted to "wiping the village off the face of the earth," adding that residents plan to rebuild.
Israeli forces also destroyed four water wells and multiple greenhouses in Beit Ummar, near Hebron, causing an estimated $60,000 in damages, and demolished a home in Nahalin, in the Bethlehem governorate. Near Jenin, bulldozers continued clearing hundreds of farmers' trees along the Arraba-Yabad and Jenin-Nablus roads, part of six military orders issued in August targeting vegetation in four area villages, according to the Palestinian Wafa news agency.
In East Jerusalem's al-Bustan neighborhood, community representative Fakhri Abu Diab said municipal bulldozers demolished a four-apartment building—the 60th such demolition in the area since October 2023. Wafa also reported that another home was demolished Monday in the Beit Hanina neighborhood, and that Israeli authorities compelled a Palestinian man in Jabal al-Mukaber to demolish his own house.
The most intense violence of the week occurred in al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah. On Wednesday evening, settlers and soldiers raided the village following accusations that residents had stolen livestock. Snipers positioned on rooftops opened fire as residents attempted to stop settlers from taking sheep, killing 16-year-old Khalil Abu Alia and 19-year-old Mohammad Nassan. The Israeli military told the Times of Israel that troops were "securing the retrieval of livestock belonging to Israeli civilians" when a "violent riot" broke out, prompting soldiers to fire at "key instigators." Witnesses said Nassan was shot in the back. In the aftermath, mourners were reportedly beaten and pepper-sprayed, a vehicle was stolen, and an ambulance was attacked.
Wafa also reported that Israeli settlers killed 20-year-old Omar Tubasi and injured three others late Sunday during a raid on the village of Hajja, east of Qalqilya. In Umm al-Khair, in the South Hebron Hills, settlers stormed the area Friday, injuring a child; arriving soldiers declared the area a closed military zone enforced only against Palestinians.
In Turmus Ayya, north of Ramallah, a settler wearing a shirt bearing the logo of the outlawed Kach movement was filmed atop a Palestinian home declaring "this land is Jewish," following a visit by US Ambassador Mike Huckabee, who had called settler violence "a form of terrorism."
In Qusra, south of Nablus, a month-long siege of three homes continued, with the army initially preventing around 100 peace activists from delivering food and medicine. Settlers also stole water tanks and livestock in the Jordan Valley and damaged water lines serving a Bedouin community near Tayasir in the northern West Bank, according to local activists.
In East Jerusalem's Old City, Israeli police shot and killed 33-year-old Ibrahim al-Hendi from Beit Hanina near Damascus Gate on Friday, alleging he had attempted to stab an officer.