PARIS (dpa-AFX) – The French Foreign Ministry has condemned statements from Israel’s government about a possible expulsion of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. “We call on Israel to refrain from such provocative statements, which are irresponsible and fuel tensions,” it said in Paris on Wednesday. A forced relocation of population groups is a serious violation of international law. “It is not up to the Israeli government to decide where the Palestinians should live on their land,” the ministry said. “The future of the Gaza Strip and its people will lie in a united Palestinian state, living in peace and security alongside Israel.”
The right-wing extremist Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and the equally right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich had spoken out in favor of Israeli repopulation of the Gaza Strip after the war against Hamas. Ben-Gvir said on Monday the war was an opportunity to promote the “resettlement of Gaza residents.” Smotrich told Israeli Army Radio on Sunday that if Israel does things right, there will be an exodus of Palestinians “and we will live in the Gaza Strip.”
French President Emmanuel Macron had already described the statements about the forced relocation of Gaza residents as unacceptable the day before in a telephone conversation with Benny Gantz, minister in Israel’s war cabinet, as the Elysée Palace announced on Tuesday evening. The idea contradicts the two-state solution, which represents the only viable solution for a return to peace and security for all.
After the killing of the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, Saleh al-Aruri, in Beirut, which was allegedly initiated by Israel, Macron also called on the Israeli government in the phone call to “avoid any escalatory behavior, especially in Lebanon,” it said the presidential palace./evs/DP/mis