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US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Saturday denied there was an Israeli plan to forcibly evict Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, even as two Israeli ministers floated proposals for the withdrawal of the Strip’s residents.
During a visit to American-citizen Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Huckabee said: “I can assure you categorically that there is no plan by Israel to forcibly relocate the residents of Gaza.”
He added that President Donald Trump’s administration supports the Palestinians’ ability to leave the Gaza Strip voluntarily, saying, “If people want to leave, they should have the right to do so,” and called their right to leave Gaza a “disgrace.”
He continued: “No one is proposing forced displacement, not the Israelis, not the Americans. And I don’t know anyone who supports it.”
On Thursday, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir proposed a plan to allow 250,000 Palestinians to leave Gaza within a year, while the rest of the Strip’s population of about two million will leave over the next six years.
His proposal came after Israeli Defense Minister Yisrael Katz said Israel was ready to evacuate Palestinians from Gaza by land and sea, but was waiting for the United States, which he said would find a destination for them.
The man said, without providing evidence, that 80 percent of Gazans want to leave and that Hamas is preventing them from doing so.
International humanitarian law prohibits the individual or mass forcible transfer of civilians from occupied territories and may constitute a war crime under certain circumstances.
Most of the population of Gaza has been forced to flee the Strip several times since Israel launched a military campaign in response to Hamas attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
Since the start of the war, Israeli calls for a Palestinian withdrawal from Gaza have been repeated. The latest proposals come ahead of legislative elections scheduled for late October, the first since the start of the war, in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ruling coalition are expected to face stiff competition.
Trump drew widespread criticism at the start of his second term last year when he called for an estimated two million Palestinians to leave Gaza and proposed turning the Strip into a “Middle Eastern Riviera”. He later dropped the proposal after it was widely rejected, especially by Egypt, which shares a land border with Gaza with Israel.
In another context, Huckabee accused the British government of anti-Semitism in response to his foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, criticizing humanitarian conditions in Gaza.
Miliband, who was born to Jewish refugee parents, released a video clip in which he called on London to take action on the situation in the strip, saying: “What’s happening is terrible. People have told me about drugs being banned and children dying waiting for life-saving equipment.”
Huckabee responded on Platform X, saying: “The British have lost their minds. Their government’s hatred of Jews knows no bounds and ignores the facts.”
Israel’s foreign ministry accused Miliband of ignoring the facts and taking a politically motivated stance, saying 22,500 tonnes of medical supplies had flown into Gaza since a ceasefire was announced in October 2025.
Violence in the West Bank
image source, JAAFAR ASHTIYEH / AFP via Getty Images
The American ambassador to Israel visited the town of Turmus Aya, north of Ramallah, in the heart of the occupied West Bank, where a large number of its residents hold American citizenship. He said at a press conference that he had come to listen to their “legitimate grievances”.
Israeli settlement attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have escalated in recent months, amid repeated criticism of Israeli authorities for their failure to hold perpetrators accountable.
Huckabee avoided direct criticism of the Israeli government, but called for measures to confront the acts of violence, noting that those responsible for them are a small minority of settlers.
He said: “Our message is clear: crime is crime, terrorism is terrorism. When people commit such acts, they should face severe consequences.”
He added that “Israel’s reputation is damaged when it appears that this small group of attackers represents a larger segment of the population,” adding, “I don’t think that’s true.”
The West Bank witnesses almost daily incidents of Israeli settlers attacking Palestinians, confiscating their crops and livestock, or attempting to evict them from their lands.
Commenting on these attacks, Huckabee said, “I think the Bible is very clear: you shall not steal, you shall not kill, you shall not covet the property of others.”
Last month, Huckabee intervened after extremist settlers besieged three homes in the town of Qusra, one of which belonged to a Palestinian with American citizenship, and prevented essential supplies from reaching its residents.
