US President Donald Trump's statement on February 4, 2025, that the United States would "take over" the Gaza Strip and that the Palestinian population there would need to be moved out would, if implemented, amount to an alarming escalation of forced displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza, Human Rights Watch said today.
International humanitarian law prohibits the permanent forced displacement of the population of an occupied territory. When such forced displacement is carried out with criminal intent, it is a war crime. If carried out as part of widespread or systematic attack on the civilian population, reflecting state policy, it is a crime against humanity.
"Much of the destruction in Gaza reflects a calculated Israeli policy to make parts of the strip unlivable," said Lama Fakih, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "Standing beside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government was responsible for this policy and is wanted for atrocity crimes by the International Criminal Court, President Donald Trump suggested displacing Palestinians on an even larger scale and 'taking over' Gaza as potential US policy in light of the destruction in Gaza. It would move the US from being complicit in war crimes to direct perpetration of atrocities."
Since October 2023, Israeli authorities have caused the massive, deliberate forced displacement of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, many of them multiple times over, and senior Israeli officials have declared their intent to displace the Palestinian population of Gaza.
Human Rights Watch has found that there is no plausible justification for the forced displacement and that it has been intentional, as well as widespread and systematic and part of state policy, amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity, and at least in parts of Gaza, ethnic cleansing.
Israeli authorities have also deliberately inflicted conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of part of the Palestinian population in Gaza, including by deliberately depriving them of food, water, and other objects necessary for their survival, amounting to the crime against humanity of extermination and acts of genocide.
The Biden administration's provision of arms to Israel, which have repeatedly been used to carry out apparent war crimes, has made the US complicit in their unlawful use.
Trump's statements on Gaza have been widely rejected, not just by neighboring countries, such as Egypt and Jordan, but by many other governments, including Germany, Australia, Ireland, the United Kingdom,Brazil, China, and Russia, as well as the United Nations human rights office.
"Governments should together make clear their strong opposition to Trump's call for forced displacement in Gaza and take action to prevent further atrocities against the Palestinian people," Fakih said.
