By Dan Williams Bloomberg News
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Israel has identified an airport and seaport as potential departure points for Palestinians from war-ravaged Gaza, according to a draft plan presented to Defense Minister Israel Katz on how to implement U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial proposal.

Preliminary ideas were put to Katz at a military briefing on Thursday, said an Israeli official familiar with the discussions. He’d ordered the military to put together a road map for Trump’s proposal, despite little clarity over whether it can get the required support or where Palestinians would be willing to move.

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The suggestion of relocating over 2 million residents of Gaza to make way for U.S.-led reconstruction was swiftly rejected by Palestinian and Middle Eastern officials as well as some Western governments.

Even so, the Israel Defense Forces is in the process of determining which of five land crossings between Gaza and Israel would allow the safe exit of Palestinians after they’d gone through security vetting, said the official, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters.

They would then travel by bus to Ramon Airport, an international hub some 250 kilometers (155 miles) away in Israel’s southern desert, or to the Ashdod seaport, an hour’s drive up the Mediterranean coast, he said.

The Israeli Defense Ministry agency in charge of the planning, Cogat, declined to comment on the discussions.

Most Israeli politicians welcomed the idea, floated by Trump during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington this week, as a way to progress the ongoing six-week ceasefire with Hamas into a permanent end to fighting.

A warning by Israel’s director of military intelligence, Shlomi Binder, that the displacement plan risked an increase in violence in the West Bank, the other Palestinian territory, was met with public reprimand.

“There will be no reality in which IDF officers will speak out against U.S. President Trump’s important plan regarding Gaza, and against the directives of the political echelon,” Katz said in a statement Friday.

Trump’s surprise comments came at a crucial time, just after talks for a second phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire got underway on Monday. Israel has maintained that any solution must result in the removal of Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and many other countries, as a ruling force in Gaza.

The IDF’s draft was built on the assumption that Egypt will stand firm in its refusal to take in Palestinians. Egypt, named by Trump along with Jordan as a potential host, rejects the idea of taking in Gazans and said Thursday Israel’s preparations undermine the ceasefire.

The pause in fighting is ongoing and three more Israelis are set to be released by Hamas on Saturday, part of a hostage-for-prisoner swap between the waring sides.

Gaza has been devastated by 16 months of fighting, triggered when Hamas operatives crossed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and abducting 250. In the ensuing war, more than 47,000 Gazans have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Vast stretches of the territory have been destroyed as Israel sought to eradicate the Palestinian militant group, and the vast majority of its population is displaced within the strip.

Still, it’s unclear how many Gazans would be willing to leave the ravaged enclave to pursue Trump’s idea of moving to “far safer and more beautiful communities.” For many Palestinians, who have struggled to hold onto their homes and lives, a displacement can seem unthinkable.

To be sure, before the Israel-Hamas war started, polls showed at least a third of Gazans hoped to move for a better life elsewhere. Since the conflict started, no such surveys have been taken.