Israel is manipulating Gaza's demographics by facilitating Palestinian emigration

Israel is manipulating Gaza's demographics by facilitating Palestinian emigration
Over 35,000 Palestinians left the Gaza Strip in 2018 due to the blockade and subsequent collapse of the economy.
2 min read
20 August, 2019
A Palestinian man looks out over destruction in Gaza in August 2014 [Getty]
Israel is actively pushing Palestinians to emigrate from Gaza, a senior official has said, with local media suggesting officials are working to find countries willing to absorb them.

Reports suggest Israel’s National Security Council has been spearheading the effort for a year and authorities are willing to go as far as allowing Palestinians to use Israeli airports to leave the country.

More than 35,000 Palestinians left Gaza in 2018 via the border crossing into Egypt, which was opened by Egyptian authorities in May 2018.

Read more: Israel 'has arrested over 50,000 children since 1967'

But since then, Israeli authorities have been in touch with countries in the Middle East and Europe to agree to take in Palestinians, though none are willing to welcome them.

Most Palestinians in Gaza grew up on refugee camps amid constant Israeli airstrikes and invasions.

A World Bank report from September 2018 said that the economy in the Gaza Strip is ‘collapsing’ under the decade long blockade, and youth unemployment is at a whopping 70 percent.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu during a trip to Ukraine claimed that Israel would ‘would not hesitate’ to conduct a military operation against the besieged territory in response to three rockets being fired from Gaza at southern Israel.

On Monday, an Israeli minister said that his cabinet is planning a "widespread operation" on the besieged Palestinian enclave Gaza, which has suffered a number of bloody assaults in recent years.

The Netanyahu government is ramping up pressure on the already beleaguered Palestinian territories and has most recently refused to allow Palestinian American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar into the country.

On Friday, 63 Palestinians, including 17 children, were injured by Israeli bullets and tear gas at the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

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