French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna affirmed that Israel does not have the right to determine the future of Gaza, which is considered Palestinian territory, stressing the need to return to the principle of international law.
In a statement to the American CNN channel, the French Minister described the repeated statements made recently by Israeli politicians and officials regarding forcing Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to emigrate as irresponsible, stressing that her country supports the two-state solution.
The French Minister explained that Gaza is Palestinian land that wants to be part of the future State of Palestine, and we support the two-state solution, which is the only possible option to resolve the dispute in the Middle East.
Colonna also indicated her country’s commitment to seek to avoid any new escalation of the situation by any party, including in neighboring regions such as Lebanon and the Red Sea.
The Israeli Ministers of Finance and National Security, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, had publicly called for the displacement of the residents of Gaza, the reoccupation of the Gaza Strip, and the construction of settlements there. Last Monday, Ben Gvir called for the return of settlers to the Gaza Strip after the end of the war, and for the displacement of the Palestinian population to countries that would accept them as refugees.
The official Israeli Broadcasting Corporation also quoted Smotrich as saying, “More than 70% of the Israeli public supports a humanitarian solution to encourage the voluntary migration of Gaza Arabs and their absorption in other countries,” adding that “Israeli society will not agree to the continuation of this reality in Gaza. We are required to rethink.” And sharing with our friends in the international community.”
Smotrich and Ben Gvir’s statements came a few weeks after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he was working on the “voluntary migration” of Gaza residents, and was searching for countries that could host them, after putting forward a proposal to displace Gazans to the Egyptian Sinai at the beginning of the war.
Israeli Channel 12 reported that Tel Aviv intends to appoint Tony Blair as a mediator between it and Western countries to persuade them to receive Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip after the end of the war.
Since October 7, the Israeli occupation army has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, leaving more than 22,000 martyrs and nearly 58,000 injured, most of them children and women. It has also left massive infrastructure destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe, according to official Palestinian and UN sources.
