A UN commissioner is “dismayed” at displacing residents of Gaza

UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk on Thursday expressed “deep alarm” over Israel’s plans to mass expel Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

Türk said in a blog post published by the UN organization on its account on the “X” platform: “I am very disturbed by the statements of high-level Israeli officials regarding plans to transfer civilians from Gaza to other countries.”

Türk stressed that “85 percent of Gaza’s population are already internally displaced,” saying: “They have the right to return to their homes.” The UN High Commissioner warned that “international law prohibits the forcible transfer of protected persons within or from the occupied territories.”

Calls have escalated in Israel in recent weeks to deport Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, which faces widespread regional and international rejection.

On Monday, Israeli Ministers of National Security and Finance Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich announced their support for the “voluntary displacement of Palestinians” from the Gaza Strip.

The official Israeli Broadcasting Authority also quoted the Minister of Finance as saying, “More than 70 percent of the Israeli public supports a humanitarian solution to encourage the voluntary immigration of Gaza Arabs and their absorption in other countries.”

Meanwhile, Ben Gvir said on the “X” platform, “We must strengthen the solution to encourage the migration of the people of Gaza, as this is the correct, just, moral and humane solution.”

Hamas responded in a statement, stressing that the statements of Israeli leaders about displacing the population of the Gaza Strip are “mere daydreams that cannot be implemented,” and called on the international community to “intervene to confront them.”

The Israeli army has been escalating its war on Gaza since last October 7, leaving tens of thousands dead and wounded.

Most of them are children and women, causing massive infrastructure destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, according to the Gaza Strip authorities and the United Nations.