The Israeli military leadership contacted Minister of War Israel Katz to seek instructions regarding the expected arrival of ships carrying foreign activists aimed at breaking the siege of the Gaza Strip. The response was clear: “Anyone who comes to protest on the shores of Gaza will be sent to Gaza, and we will use the ships to evacuate the residents who are willing to migrate voluntarily.”
Katz announced on Thursday that his instructions to the Israeli army were to conduct a “swap operation” between the protesters arriving on protest fleets on the shores of Gaza and the residents willing to leave Gaza. “Anyone who comes to protest on the shores of Gaza, we will send them to Gaza, and we will use the ships to evacuate the residents of Gaza who are willing to leave voluntarily.”
During a situation assessment meeting held by Katz, it was stated that “protest boats carrying demonstrators are expected to reach the shores of Gaza,” according to “Channel 14.”
In response, Katz issued instructions to the Israeli army to allow the protest boats to reach the shores of Gaza, disembark the protesters, confiscate their ships, and transfer them to the Ashdod port, where “they can be used to evacuate residents of Gaza who are interested in leaving Gaza voluntarily.”
Since January 25, President Trump has been promoting a plan to relocate Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring countries such as Egypt and Jordan, a plan that both countries rejected, along with several other Arab nations and international organizations.
Israel has turned Gaza into the largest prison in the world, maintaining an 18-year-long siege. The genocidal war has forced nearly two million of its inhabitants—out of a population of around 2.4 million Palestinians—to flee in tragic conditions, with severe shortages of food, water, and medicine intentionally created.
On February 21, Trump stated that he would not impose his plan regarding Gaza’s future and that he would present it as a recommendation, without yet taking a position on Cairo’s plan.
On Thursday, Steve Witkoff, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East under President Donald Trump, considered the Egyptian plan for Gaza’s reconstruction without the relocation of Palestinians as “a first good-faith step.”
In press statements, the American envoy said, “We need more discussion on this matter, but it is a good-faith first step on the part of the Egyptians.”
He continued, “I have just finished reading the Egyptian proposal, which contains many attractive features.”
With U.S. support, Israel committed genocide in Gaza between October 7, 2023, and January 19, 2025, resulting in more than 160,000 Palestinian martyrs and wounded, most of them women and children, and over 14,000 missing.
