Turmus Ayya, Palestine - The US ambassador to Israel said Saturday there was no plan underway to force Palestinians out of Gaza, after Israeli ministers laid out ideas on how to expel the territory's two million people.
"I can tell you categorially there is no plan of the Israelis to displace people out of Gaza against their will," Ambassador Mike Huckabee told reporters as he visited Palestinian-Americans in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Israeli far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir laid out a plan on Thursday that aims to see the departure of 250,000 Palestinians from Gaza in the first year, followed by the rest of the roughly two million residents over the following six years.
The remarks came a day after Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel was ready to remove Palestinians from Gaza by sea and land but was waiting for the US, which he said was discussing where the population would go.
Katz, without citing his source, said 80% of people in Gaza wanted to leave but that Hamas was preventing them.
Huckabee said President Donald Trump's administration wanted to give Palestinians the option to leave by choice.
"There is an open-mindedness if people wish to leave, that they should have the right to leave," Huckabee said, calling it a "disgrace" to "incarcerate" Palestinians inside Gaza.
"Nobody is suggesting there would be forced displacement – the Israelis are not, the Americans are not. I know of no one who supports that," he said.
Forced displacement of a civilian population from occupied territory is considered a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.
Virtually the entire population of Gaza has already been displaced internally by Israel's military assault since October 2023. Some Israeli politicians have spoken of bringing settlers back to the Gaza Strip, where Israel dismantled settlements in 2005.
The remarks on displacement come in the run-up to the October 27 elections, in which polls show a tight race for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has brought once shunned far-right figures into his cabinet.
Trump stunned the world early in his second term by proposing to displace all Palestinians at least temporarily from Gaza and turn the rubble-strewn Mediterranean territory into a luxury resort. He backtracked after pushback from countries including Egypt, the only country other than Israel to border Gaza.
Huckabee says Israel should impose "severe consequences" for settler violence
Huckabee, long known as a staunch supporter of Israel and settlers, toured the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, home to a large Palestinian-American community, and said he wanted to hear their "legitimate grievances."
He said Saturday that Israel's government bore responsibility for West Bank Palestinians' safety and should impose "severe consequences" over violence, as he visited families following a surge in attacks by settlers.
As the ambassador met families inside a house, a settler from a nearby illegal outpost approached nearby in a quad bike.
"One of the messages that we have been sending and we will continue to send is that people in these communities have a right to live with a level of security and safety, and that the government has a responsibility to make sure that that happens," Huckabee said.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. Violence by Israeli settlers towards Palestinian residents has persisted for years, often with little or no legal consequence, but recent months have seen a surge in attacks.
Huckabee stopped short of criticizing Israel by name but called for action against the violence, which he insisted was the work of a small minority of settlers.
"Our clear message is that crime is crime, terror is terror. When people do it they should have an expectation that they will have severe consequences," Huckabee said.
He said that taking action was in the "best interest" of Israel, which already faces growing criticism around the world, including in the US, over the devastation in Gaza.
"Their reputation does not do well when it appears that this tiny little group of marauders are somehow representative of the larger population. I don't believe that it is," Huckabee said. "There may be a few hundred who are responsible, but that's a few hundred too many."
Some half a million Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, home to three million Palestinians.
In the run-up to October 27 elections Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has been ramping up approval of new settlements, which are illegal under international law.
Despite Huckabee's dismissal of violent settlers, Netanyahu has brought into his government far-right ministers who have openly mused about expelling the Palestinian population.
Huckabee refers to West Bank as "Judea and Samaria"
Incidents in the West Bank take place nearly daily with settlers attacking Palestinians, taking their crops or livestock or seeking to force them off of their land.
Speaking of violence by settlers, Huckabee said, "I think the Scripture is pretty clear – Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not kill, and thou shalt not even covet."
Huckabee earlier intervened when settler extremists camped out and blocked basic supplies from reaching another Palestinian-American in the town of Qusra last month, leading to rare condemnation by Netanyahu of settlers.
Huckabee, an evangelical Christian pastor and former governor of Arkansas, has long cited his faith to back Israel.
Before being tapped by Trump as ambassador Huckabee even declined to use the term Palestinian, which he now uses.
Huckabee continues to refer to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria, a biblical term used by Israel.
"The reason I use the terms Judea and Samaria is because they are the ancient biblical terms of this land. 80% of the Bible happened in the era of Judea and Samaria. The West Bank is a nebulous term to me," Huckabee said.