News - Middle East: The Palestinian Islamic Jihad has strongly condemned Israel's plan to forcefully displace Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to other countries, saying it proves that the regime is committing genocide in the coastal territory.

In a statement issued on Monday, the movement denounced "the remarks made by the officials of the Nazi government in the Israeli entity regarding the displacement of our people in the Gaza Strip and the search for countries to deport them to."

Such statements, the movement added, "are ongoing war crimes that confirm the Zionist aggression on the Gaza Strip is a war of genocide against the existence of the Palestinian people in their homeland."

The Israeli regime launched its war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, following an operation by the territory's resistance movements, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Storm. Close to 22,000 people, most of them women and children, have been killed in the regime's military aggression so far.

Throughout the war, the regime's officials have been floating a plan, which requires forced displacement of Palestinians residing in Gaza to other countries.

On Sunday, Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich called for displacement of two million Palestinians from the besieged territory, so that only around 200,000 Palestinians would remain.

His remarks were echoed on Monday by another extremist minister who called for the return of Israeli settlers to Gaza, saying that Palestinians should be encouraged to emigrate.

"We must promote a solution to encourage the emigration of Gaza's residents," Itamar Ben Gvir said, adding that the onslaught on Gaza was "an opportunity to develop a project to encourage Gaza's residents to emigrate to countries around the world."

Commenting on their remarks, the Islamic Jihad said silence in the face of the Israeli regime's plan to displace the people of Gaza "implies implicit encouragement for the entity to continue its criminal agenda."

Such agenda "will not be limited to Gaza alone," the movement warned, adding that the plan threatens "Arab national security" and poses a "definite danger...to the stability of all countries of the region." 

Concluding the statement, the resistance movement held the United States responsible for emboldening the Israeli regime to implement such plans against Palestinians "through the invention of the term 'voluntary displacement'."

The Islamic Jihad said the US is "giving the [Zionist] entity the time and weapons necessary to destroy all aspects of life in Gaza, so that displacement becomes the only option" for its people.

As Israel's most dedicated and age-old ally, the US has torpedoed the prospect of cessation of the Israeli onslaught by stonewalling ratification of all United Nations Security Council resolutions that have been calling for implementation of a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Washington has also supplied the regime with more than 10,000 tons of advanced weaponry since the onset of the regime's military aggression.

The Islamic Jihad, however, vowed that Palestinian resistance groups will not hesitate to stand up to the US-backed Israeli onslaught.

"We affirm that we will continue to confront this war of extermination and displacement, and we rely on the awareness of our people and the bravery of the fighters in the field to thwart these criminal plans," the movement said.

Source: Press TV