The foreign ministers of Norway and Iceland have described Israel’s plans to evacuate Palestinians from the Gaza Strip as an “illegal forceful displacement,” according to Al-Arabiya.
The ministries said that such plans would cause even more violence and undermine efforts to establish a Palestinian state.
“We are alarmed and appalled by what we have heard from the Israeli security cabinet about plans to step up even stronger the military campaign in Gaza and to do what they refer to as an evacuation,” Norway’s Espen Barth Eide said in an interview.
This statement comes after the approval of Israel’s Security Cabinet to a plan that may involve the seizure of the entire Strip of 2.3 million people, and control over humanitarian aid.
“It will amount to forceful displacement of the Palestinian people, first from north to south, and potentially out of the country. This is clearly illegal in international law,” he said, adding “it will undermine the hope for a Palestinian state … (and be) a recipe for more bloodshed.”
Meanwhile, the foreign minister of Iceland, the first Western European nation to recognize the Palestinian State in 2011, said that Israel must allow the entry of humanitarian aid to alleviate the suffering of civilians.
“What is needed more urgently than ever is a resumption of a ceasefire and the unconditional release of all hostages,” Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir said in the joint phone interview.
Post-war Administration Possibility
Recently, the US has discussed with Israel the possibility of having a temporary post-war administration of Gaza under the leadership of the US, according to Reuters. They also mentioned the US administration of Iraq after the 2003 war as a possible model.
“The authority that they (the US) set up in Iraq after the Iraq war, to put it very carefully, is not universally recognized as a very good idea. That was not successful,” Barth Eide said.
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