Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls for ‘voluntary migration' of Palestinians. Critics call it ethnic cleansing
Netanyahu wants to realise US President Donald Trump 's vision of relocating much of Gaza's population of more than a million people through what he refers to as 'voluntary migration' — and what critics have warned could be ethnic cleansing.
'Give them the opportunity to leave! First, from combat zones, and also from the strip if they want,' Netanyahu said in an interview on Tuesday with Israeli TV station i24 to discuss the planned offensive in areas that include Gaza City, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people shelter.
'We are not pushing them out but allowing them to leave.'
Witnesses and staff at Nasser and Awda hospitals, which received the bodies, said people were shot on their way to aid distribution sites or while awaiting convoys entering Gaza.
Efforts to revive ceasefire talks have resumed after apparently breaking down last month. Hamas and Egyptian officials met on Wednesday in Cairo, according to Hamas official Taher al-Nounou.
Israel has no plans to send its negotiating team to talks in Cairo, Netanyahu's office said.
Israel's plans to widen its military offensive against Hamas to parts of Gaza it does not yet control have sparked condemnation at home and abroad, and could be intended to raise pressure on Hamas to reach a ceasefire.
The militants still hold 50 hostages taken in the October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war. Israel believes around 20 are still alive. Families fear a new offensive endangers them.
When asked by i24 News if the window had closed on a partial ceasefire deal, Netanyahu responded that he wanted all hostages back, alive and dead.
Hamas says it will only release the remaining hostages in return for the release of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. The militant group has refused to disarm.
Among those killed while seeking aid were 14 Palestinians in the Teina area approximately 3km from a food distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), according to staff at Nasser hospital.
Israeli gunfire killed five other Palestinians while trying to reach another GHF distribution site in the Netzarim corridor area, according to Awda hospital and witnesses. The Israeli military said it wasn't aware of any casualties from Israeli fire in that area.
GHF said there were no incidents at or near its sites Wednesday.
Israeli fire killed at least six other people waiting for aid trucks close to the Morag corridor, which separates parts of southern Gaza, Nasser hospital said.
The Israeli military on Wednesday said it a Hamas militant last week who took part in the 2023 attack that started the war. It blamed Abdullah Saeed Abd al-Baqin for participating in the abduction of three Israeli hostages.
The Hamas-led attack abducted 251 people and killed around 1200 people, mostly civilians. Israel's air and ground offensive has since displaced most of Gaza's population, destroyed vast areas and pushed the territory toward famine.
The offensive has killed more than 61,700 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians but says around half were women and children.
The Israeli military said dozens of Palestinians hurled rocks toward an off-duty soldier and another person carrying out 'engineering works' near the village of Duma, lightly wounding them. It said the soldier initially fired warning shots, then opened fire in self-defence.
The West Bank has seen a rise in settler violence as well as Palestinian attacks since the start of the war in Gaza, and the Israeli military has carried out major military operations there. Rights groups and Palestinians say the military often turns a blind eye to violent settlers or intervenes to protect them.
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