Israeli ministers advance Gaza depopulation plans as violence escalates

Two Israeli government ministers moved last week from rhetorical calls for Palestinian removal to concrete policy proposals, even as violence across Gaza and the West Bank continued unabated. Defence Minister Israel Katz told a conference on Wednesday that evacuating Palestinians from Gaza represents "the only solution," pledging that Israel would pursue it "by sea, by air and by every way possible." He also suggested that US President Donald Trump had merely paused his backing for such plans rather than abandoning them entirely. Days later, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir presented what he branded "Disengagement 710"—a seven-year scheme framed around what he termed "voluntary emigration" that would remove Gaza's roughly two million residents. Ben-Gvir went further, stating that if re-elected he would create a dedicated Migration Ministry tasked with expelling Palestinians. The US State Department issued a statement opposing any forced displacement or mandatory transfer of Gaza's population, though it stopped short of directly naming or condemning either minister.

Meanwhile, the death toll in Gaza climbed steadily through the week. An Israeli special forces operation near Gaza City's American hospital on Tuesday killed at least four people, including two children and a woman, and resulted in the capture of Moin al-Arabeed, whom Israel identified as the head of Hamas's internal security apparatus. A drone strike on Wednesday killed a child in Jabalia refugee camp; the same day, an attack on a tent in Khan Younis claimed one life. On Thursday, two Palestinians—one of them thirteen years old—were shot dead near Beit Lahia after Israel said they had crossed into an Israeli-controlled zone. A separate drone strike that day killed a man near a church compound in Gaza City's Remal neighbourhood. By Sunday, strikes had hit near a school in Gaza City, wounding several people, and another drone strike on a car near Hamid intersection killed Youssef Akila and his young daughter, Wafaa. Before dawn on Monday, at least five more Palestinians died, among them three-year-old Saadi Ghalia, killed when an artillery shell struck a school in Deir el-Balah that was sheltering displaced families.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported by Monday that 73,658 people have been killed and 174,622 wounded since October 2023. Of those deaths, more than 1,340 have occurred since an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire took effect in October 2025. The work of recovering bodies has continued alongside the killings. On Sunday, families in northern Gaza held funerals for approximately 100 people, including 60 children, whose remains were extracted from rubble in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighbourhood—many of them relatives within the extended Malaka family. Gaza's civil defence chief, Raed al-Dahshan, told Al Jazeera that his teams could recover an estimated 8,000 additional bodies still buried under rubble within 90 days if provided with adequate heavy equipment, but cautioned that without such resources, "this work will continue for years." Between 10,000 and 14,000 people remain unaccounted for beneath Gaza's debris.

Humanitarian conditions in the strip have deteriorated as aid flows remain insufficient. The World Health Organization warned that water contamination in Gaza has nearly tripled since January. The Palestinian Water Authority reported that all five of Gaza's wastewater treatment plants have ceased operation, with approximately 55,000 cubic metres of untreated sewage being discharged daily into the environment.

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces conducted a series of demolitions. In Khirbet al-Tabban in Masafer Yatta, the destruction was comprehensive—all 12 remaining homes were razed, leaving 70 people homeless, including 30 children. Nidal Younis, the council head, described it as "wiping the village off the face of the earth," though he said residents intended to rebuild. In nearby Beit Ummar in Hebron, Israeli forces destroyed four water wells and several greenhouses, causing an estimated $60,000 in losses, and demolished a home in Nahalin in Bethlehem governorate. Around Jenin, the clearing of hundreds of farmers' trees continued along multiple roads as part of six military orders issued in August affecting four villages in the area. In occupied East Jerusalem's al-Bustan neighbourhood, a four-apartment building was demolished by municipal bulldozers—the 60th such demolition there since October 2023. On Monday morning, another home was demolished in Beit Hanina, and authorities forced a Palestinian man in Jabal al-Mukaber to demolish his own residence.

The most sustained violence of the week centred on al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, where settlers and soldiers raided the village on Wednesday evening after accusing residents of stealing livestock. Snipers positioned themselves on rooftops and opened fire as residents attempted to prevent settlers from taking sheep, killing Khalil Abu Alia, 16, and Mohammad Nassan, 19. The Israeli military told the Times of Israel that troops were "securing the retrieval of livestock belonging to Israeli civilians" when a "violent riot" erupted and soldiers "fired at key instigators." Eyewitnesses reported that Nassan was shot in the back. In the days following, mourners were beaten and pepper-sprayed, their vehicle stolen, and an ambulance was attacked. Late Sunday, Wafa reported that Israeli settlers killed Omar Tubasi, 20, and injured three others during a raid on the village of Hajja, east of Qalqilya. Settlers also stormed Umm al-Khair in the South Hebron Hills on Friday, injuring a child; soldiers who arrived subsequently declared the area a closed military zone enforced only against Palestinians, allowing settlers to remain. In Turmus Ayya north of Ramallah, a settler wearing a Kach movement logo was filmed standing atop a Palestinian home declaring "this land is Jewish" after US Ambassador Mike Huckabee visited and characterized settler violence as "a form of terrorism." In Qusra south of Nablus, a month-long siege of three homes persisted, with the army initially blocking roughly 100 peace activists from delivering food and medicine. Settlers stole water tanks and livestock in the Jordan Valley and sabotaged water lines serving a Bedouin encampment near Tayasir in the northern West Bank. In East Jerusalem's Old City, Israeli police shot and killed Ibrahim al-Hendi, 33, from Beit Hanina, near Damascus Gate on Friday, claiming he had attempted to stab an officer.