The displacement of Gazans is a project backed by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. US President Donald Trump previously expressed support for the idea before ditching it.
In February, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, denounced plans “aimed at making a permanent demographic change in Gaza”.
In the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to target and eliminate the leaders behind it.
The attack resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory response in Gaza has killed at least 72,803 people, according to the territory’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority.
Israel has previously killed Hamas’s former political chief Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar, its Gaza chief who was widely regarded as the mastermind of the Oct 7 attack.
It also killed Mohammed Deif, the longtime commander of Hamas’s armed wing, known as the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, as well as Mohammed Sinwar, who succeeded his brother Yahya Sinwar, as Gaza chief.
Israeli strikes have also targeted Hamas operatives in Lebanon and senior Iran-backed Hezbollah commanders allied with the group, including former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.