Israeli FM urges Gaza-style evacuation of Palestinians in occupied West Bank
Occupied Palestine (Quds News Network)- Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday called on to consider “temporary evacuation” of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as “we deal with terror infrastructure in Gaza” amid an ongoing Israeli military operation in three West Bank cities.
“We need to deal with the [terror] threat exactly as we deal with terror infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian civilians and any other step needed,” Israel’s senior diplomat tweeted, calling the operation “a war in every sense.”
“Iran is working to establish a terror front against Israel in [the West Bank], according to the model it used in Lebanon and Gaza, by funding and arming terrorists and smuggling advanced weapons from Jordan,” he claimed.
“We must address this threat by all necessary means,” he wrote on X.
Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter appeared to back up Katz, telling Army Radio that “if we have to evacuate people in order to keep our soldiers safe, they will be evacuated. They are not being sent abroad — they are being evacuated and after that they will return home.”
Katz’s remarks appear to mirror Israel’s displacement of around 90 percent of Gaza’s some 2.1 million people under so-called military “evacuation orders”, and which have been described as a war crime by rights groups.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Israel’s major military incursion into the occupied West Bank must not be “the premises of a war extension from Gaza” and a repeat of the “full-scale destruction” seen in the Palestinian enclave.
On Wednesday, Israel launched its largest offensive on the occupied West Bank cities of Jenin, Tulkarm, and Tubas since the Second Intifada, attacking the three cities from land and air.
17 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli occupation forces since the start of the military operation in the three cities, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry and medical sources.
More than 20 other Palestinians have also been wounded in the major military operation, the ministry added.