After Israel unexpectedly eased its strict border restrictions, Ayed Ayoub was finally able to leave Gaza last month with his family for an academic fellowship in France, ending more than a year of being blocked by Israeli authorities amid war and hunger.
Ayoub, his wife and their four children are among around 1,000 Palestinians who have left Gaza following Israel’s relaxation of rules in recent months, bussed from the enclave to board flights to Europe and elsewhere, according to interviews with affected Gazans and foreign diplomats.
The new departures require a request to Israel by a foreign government, and their numbers remain relatively small.
Reuters could not establish why Israel was now letting more Palestinians leave Gaza, which comes amid international outcry over the humanitarian conditions there. However, the easing of restrictions parallels the Israeli government’s stated goal of facilitating the resettlement of Gaza’s population in other countries.
Netanyahu Courts Far-Right Support
For Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, talk of mass resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza has helped shore up support with far-right allies who oppose a further truce with Hamas and want to re-establish Jewish settlements there.
Interior Minister Moshe Arbel has described the recent departure of Gazans to European countries as a bid to temporarily and voluntarily vacate the Gaza Strip to allow for its reconstruction, a process he said was inspired by Donald Trump.
The Republican U.S. president has proposed developing the enclave as a coastal resort, free of Palestinians.
Trump-Backed Relocation Efforts
“I thank President Trump for thinking of this important initiative,” Arbel said on April 1, after supervising the departure of a flight taking Gazans to Germany. “Together, joining forces, we will turn this place into a paradise. With God’s help, let us succeed.”
His spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
After the evacuation that Ayoub’s family were part of, the French Foreign Ministry said France remained opposed to the forced displacement of people from Gaza.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that Trump’s idea could amount to ethnic cleansing.
Despite the comments from Arbel, five Israeli officials told Reuters the easing of restrictions was not a direct response to Trump’s Gaza proposal or part of any such plan.
One of the Israeli officials said Israel was not trying to reduce Gaza’s population but rather responding to mounting requests by countries seeking to help people reach a safe destination.
Exodus Echoes Past Dispossession
For many Palestinians, the opportunity to move is fraught with echoes of the historical dispossession of their lands.
However, nearly half of Gazans would now consider leaving, according to a recent Palestinian poll, after Israel’s 19-month offensive has left much of the strip in ruins, with its population largely displaced and dependent on dwindling aid supplies.
Policies in place since Israel broke a fragile six-week ceasefire on March 2 further increased pressure on Gaza’s population, even as U.S. and Arab mediators push for an end to the war.
Famine risks have worsened under Israel’s two-month blockade of all aid deliveries in Gaza. It renewed a bombing campaign, killing 464 people last week, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. And it launched a new “extensive” land offensive on Sunday, two days after Trump concluded a tour of Gulf states.
Israel also said on Sunday it would ease the blockade and allow in limited aid.
Netanyahu Hails Trump’s Idea
Netanyahu has hailed Trump’s idea for Gaza but cites a major obstacle: “We have one problem – we need receiving states,” he told a hawkish group of Gaza war veterans on Tuesday. Neighbours Jordan and Syria – which have large Palestinian refugee populations dating back decades – and Egypt are loathe to take in large numbers of Gazans.
The foreign diplomats said Israel began informing foreign governments late last year, before Trump took office and floated his proposal, that they would soon ease the restrictions. The diplomats asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
The relaxed restrictions largely took effect at the start of the year. Israeli officials now take days instead of weeks or months to approve requests for Palestinians with foreign citizenship, their relatives, and recipients of foreign scholarships, the diplomats involved said. Among those now allowed to leave were Palestinians previously denied exit by Israel on security grounds, they added.
Israel’s Prime Minister’s office, Defence Ministry and its COGAT branch, which coordinates with the Palestinians, did not respond to Reuters queries about the scope or reason for the recent easing of restrictions. Hamas, which has urged Gazans not to take part in any relocation offers, said it was looking into reports of restrictions being eased.
Gaza
The population of Gaza has already fallen by about 160,000 during the course of the war to around 2.1 million, according to the Palestinian statistics agency. More than 53,000 residents have been killed, and the rest have left, including some allowed out for medical emergencies. Others have been able to leave through an expensive system involving Egyptian brokers.
Thousands of foreign nationals fled earlier in the war, but it became much harder to get permission once Israel took over the Rafah crossing with Egypt in May last year and enforced a near-total closure of Gaza’s borders.
(With inputs from Reuters)
