“Why not give Gazans a choice?” he said in remarks to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. “Everybody said this is the largest open-air prison in the world. Not because of us, we let people leave.”
He said that to successfully leave Gaza, Palestinians have to bribe their way out, noting that over the last two or so years, Israel estimates that around 150,000 Gazans left.
“You know how they left? Because they bribed their way out, not through us ... the rich could leave,” Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu floated the idea of neighboring states and the authorities in Gaza extending to Gazans the choice to leave. About 1.7 million people remain in Gaza.
“If other people wanted to leave, give them a choice, not forcible eviction, not ethnic cleansing,” he said. “If people want to leave, if they want to emigrate, it’s their choice. And I think President Trump’s plan is right on the dot.”
Negotiations Continue
Negotiations for the continuation of the cease-fire deal with the Hamas terrorist group are ongoing, Netanyahu’s office confirmed on Sunday. According to his office, Israel’s negotiation teams have been instructed to leave for talks in Cairo on Feb. 17 “to discuss the continued implementation of the first stage of the deal.”Hamas has to release 14 more hostages in Phase One of the deal, in which both sides agreed to 33 humanitarian hostage cases in exchange for 1,904 Palestinian prisoners. Hamas has said that eight of the 14 are dead.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas abducted 251 people from Israel to be held hostage in Gaza. Now, 15 months later, 73 hostages, mostly men, remain in Gaza, and about half are believed to be dead.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff said in an interview just before Israel issued its statement that talks for the second stage of the cease-fire deal were already underway with Netanyahu, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Al Thani, and Egypt’s director of intelligence.
Israel in its statement confirmed its commitment to continuing negotiations for the second stage of the deal, in which it seeks the return of all hostages, dead or alive, including Israel Defense Forces soldiers and American-Israeli Edan Alexander.
The U.S. secretary of state also backed a program to encourage voluntary migration of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
In an interview last week, Rubio indicated that Trump’s Gaza proposal was in part aimed at pressuring Arab states to make their own postwar plans that would be acceptable to Israel. Rubio also appeared to suggest that Arab countries send troops to combat Hamas.
“If the Arab countries have a better plan, then that’s great,” Rubio said Feb. 13 on the “Clay and Buck Show.”
“Hamas has guns,” he said. “Someone has to confront those guys. It’s not going to be American soldiers. And if the countries in the region can’t figure that piece out, then Israel is going to have to do it.”
Egypt will host an Arab summit on Feb. 27 and is working with other countries on a counterproposal that would allow for Gaza’s rebuilding without removing its population.
“We have a common strategy and we can’t always share in details this strategy with the public, including when the gates of hell will be opened, as they surely will, if all our hostages are not released, until the last one of them,” he said.
“I have to say that President Trump has presented a bold new vision and the only plan that I think can work to enable a different future for the people of Gaza, for the people of Israel, for the surrounding areas.”
