© AP Photo/Jehad AlshrafiDisplaced Palestinians move along the shore of Gaza City.
Israel has rebranded its controversial plan to expel Palestinians from Gaza, dropping the euphemism "voluntary migration" and replacing it with "Freedom of Movement Plan," Israeli media reported on 29 June.
Channel 13 reported that Israeli security officials and the Mossad have been instructed to stop using the term "voluntary migration," which has drawn condemnation as a thinly veiled reference to Israel's effort to ethnically cleanse Gaza of its Palestinian residents.
According to Channel 13, Israeli officials believe that rebranding the initiative name could make it easier for foreign governments to support the plan.
The officials "expressed optimism that the change in terminology could help shift those countries' positions and revive the plan after earlier setbacks," the channel added.
Israel has lobbied multiple countries to accept large numbers of Palestinians from Gaza as refugees, including South Sudan, Chad, the Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Libya.
Tel Aviv has also proposed sending Palestinians to the breakaway region of Somaliland. In December, Israel became the first UN member state to recognize Somaliland's independence from Somalia.
© gov.ilShmuel Ben Ezra, Director of Israel's National Security Council
In a meeting attended by Israeli military and Shin Bet security service officials, Mossad officials said that no countries have agreed to accept Palestinians from Gaza.
An Israeli defense official who spoke with Haaretz said that the revival of the plan to expel Palestinians from the strip may be connected to quiet agreements reached recently between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump.
The official added that the US may agree to the Israeli plan as "compensation for painful concessions" that Washington imposed on Israel as part of its deal with Iran.
© BloombergPalestinians shelter at a temporary tent camp set up for those who were displaced from their homes by Israel's evacuation orders and airstrikes, Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, October 2023
On 28 October 2023, Israeli culture magazine Mekomit published a leaked document issued by Israel's Ministry of Intelligence recommending the occupation of Gaza and total transfer of its 2.3 million inhabitants to Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
The document recommended that Israel evacuate the Gazan population to Sinai during the war, establish tent cities and new cities in northern Sinai to accommodate the deported population, and then create a closed security zone stretching several kilometers inside Egypt.
The expelled Palestinians would not be allowed to return to any areas near the Israeli border.
The plan stated the government must launch a public relations campaign that will promote the expulsion of Palestinians in a way that does not damage Israel's reputation.
The deportation of Palestinians from Gaza must be presented as a necessary humanitarian measure to receive international support, the document added.
Such a deportation could be justified if it will lead to "fewer casualties among the civilian population compared to the expected number of casualties if they remain."
Since that time, Israeli bombing has killed at least 75,000 Palestinians, the majority women and children, according to a tally by the Gaza Health Ministry. However, independent estimates of the death toll are much higher, reaching into the hundreds of thousands.
Over a million Palestinians in Gaza are displaced and living in tents after Israeli bombing destroyed their homes.
Comment: You can bet Kushner's got a beachfront deal in there somewhere.