Israel should conquer Gaza, send Gazans to France, Ben-Gvir tells ‘Post’ - interview

Itamar Ben-Gvir proposed that Israel conquer the entire Gaza Strip and encourage Gazans to emigrate. He presented the idea as support for Donald Trump’s February 2025 relocation proposal. The proposal matters because it would involve moving a population of roughly two million people from the territory where they live.

Ben-Gvir said Gazans could be offered good conditions elsewhere. He specifically mentioned France, Britain, and London, along with other European places that might need workers or offer more comfortable living. He also shared AI-generated videos showing Gazans being transported to Paris.

The plan has stalled, according to the article. Ben-Gvir nevertheless continued to describe it as a good plan and connected it to his demand that Israel control all of Gaza. His comments place population relocation alongside military conquest as his preferred approach to the conflict.

The Gaza Strip is a Palestinian territory on the eastern Mediterranean coast. It is a narrow, densely populated area where roughly two million people live. Gaza has its own communities, homes, institutions, and civilian population. Its status and future are central political issues for Israelis and Palestinians.

The territory is at the center of the Israel-Hamas conflict because Hamas launched the October 7, 2023, attack from Gaza, according to the article. Israel then waged war there and continues to debate military control, hostage agreements, and Gaza’s future. Ben-Gvir says Israel should conquer the entire territory.

The conflict has made Gaza the focus of arguments over security, civilian protection, displacement, and political authority. Ben-Gvir’s proposal would not simply change military control. It would also encourage the population to leave, making the territory’s future and the rights of its residents even more contested.

The article refers to approximately two million people living in Gaza by describing Trump’s plan to relocate approximately two million Gazans. That figure is the relevant population scale provided in the source. It indicates that the proposal concerns nearly the entire civilian population rather than a limited evacuation.

Relocating that many residents would require moving families, arranging transport, finding housing, and providing food, healthcare, schooling, work, and legal status elsewhere. It would also mean leaving homes and communities behind. Ben-Gvir suggested European destinations, including France, Britain, and London, and argued that residents could receive good conditions.

The article says Trump’s proposal had stalled by the time of the interview. It does not provide a detailed operational plan or identify countries that agreed to accept Gazans. The scale alone creates major practical, political, and humanitarian questions about consent, safety, ownership, and Gaza’s future.

Itamar Ben-Gvir is Israel’s far-right National Security Minister and a key member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition. He leads the Otzma Yehudit party, which recent polling projects to win about eight seats in the next Knesset. He has also said he will demand the defense portfolio in the next government.

As national security minister, Ben-Gvir has influence over policing and public-security policy. The article says he praised police officers, discussed crime in Arab communities, and sought stronger intelligence capabilities. He also said he wanted spyware used in homes to let police listen to conversations, raising privacy concerns.

His coalition role gives his views political weight, but the article also describes restrictions imposed by Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara. Ben-Gvir repeatedly opposed hostage-ceasefire agreements and pushed continued military action. His positions therefore affect debates over policing, Gaza, hostages, and Israel’s wider security policy.

According to the article, Hamas carried out a massacre on October 7, 2023. Ben-Gvir described the attack as involving the killing of children, rape, the burning of babies, and hostage-taking. The article also says he referred to Palestinians who tortured male and female hostages, while giving no independent breakdown of responsibility for those acts.

Ben-Gvir uses the attack as his reason for rejecting Palestinians’ claim that Gaza is their home. He argues that people who start a war and commit such crimes cannot make that argument. He also rejects the idea that only a few people were involved and says many Palestinians participated.

That reasoning supports his call for encouraging emigration and conquering Gaza. It treats the actions of Hamas and alleged participants as grounds for removing Gaza’s broader population. The article presents this as Ben-Gvir’s argument, not as a legal ruling or an established justification for collective displacement.

International humanitarian law generally protects civilians from forcible transfer or deportation from occupied or conflict-affected territory, except in narrowly defined security or imperative military situations. A government that forcibly moved Gaza’s civilian population could face allegations of serious violations, including unlawful transfer or deportation. Depending on the facts and intent, other international crimes could also be examined.

The consequences would not be limited to courts. Two million people could lose homes, property, livelihoods, schools, medical access, and community ties. Receiving countries would need to provide safety, housing, food, healthcare, and legal status. Movement under threats, coercion, violence, or impossible living conditions would raise especially severe concerns.

The article does not describe a finalized relocation operation or legal assessment. It says Trump’s proposal stalled and Ben-Gvir advocated encouraging emigration. Whether movement was genuinely voluntary, or forced by military pressure and conditions, would be central to assessing its legality and humanitarian impact.

Voluntary emigration means people decide to leave freely, with accurate information and a genuine option to remain. Forced displacement occurs when civilians are compelled to move through violence, threats, coercion, or circumstances that remove meaningful choice. International humanitarian law treats that distinction as fundamental. This explanation uses established legal principles beyond the article.

Ben-Gvir calls his proposal “encouraging emigration” and says Gazans could receive good conditions in Europe. But the article also quotes him calling for Israel to conquer the entire Gaza Strip. If residents were ordered out, threatened, attacked, or made unable to survive safely, their departure could be considered forced even if another country offered housing or work.

The article does not establish how any relocation would operate or whether residents could freely refuse. Trump’s proposal had stalled, and no receiving-country agreement is described. The crucial question would be whether Gazans had a genuine, safe choice to stay, rather than merely an offer to leave under overwhelming pressure.