Government ministers accuse Netanyahu of sabotaging effort to facilitate mass migration out of Gaza Strip.By David Rosenberg, World Israel NewsIsrael’s effort to facilitate the departure of Palestinian Arabs from the Gaza Strip has stalled, despite the creation of a special government body meant to handle the issue, Israeli officials said according to a report published by Israel Hayom on Sunday.The directorate was established about a year ago after surveys indicated that roughly half of Gazans wanted to leave the Strip.Israel’s Security Cabinet approved the body in March 2025, saying it would prepare “safe and controlled passage” for Gaza residents seeking “voluntary departure to third countries.”Since then, however, the resettlement plan has run into major obstacles.The biggest problem is the lack of countries willing to receive large numbers of Gazans. Arab states, including Egypt and Jordan, have repeatedly rejected proposals to relocate Palestinians from Gaza.Egypt has been especially forceful in rejecting the idea. Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty dismissed the description of Gaza departures as “voluntary,” calling it “nonsense.”Israeli officials also face security concerns, the report said.The migration directorate was tasked with screening Palestinians at designated crossings, securing movement routes and coordinating travel by land, sea and air.Israeli officials have said such checks are necessary to prevent Hamas operatives or other terrorists from leaving Gaza under civilian cover.Supporters of the policy argue that Gazans who want to leave should be allowed to do so, especially after years of war and destruction.The issue has also become tied to President Donald Trump’s broader Gaza plan, which included proposals for large-scale relocation and reconstruction. Israel’s government adopted voluntary emigration as one of its policy directions after Trump returned to office, according to the Institute for National Security Studies.Some 100,000 Gazans have submitted applications to emigrate, officials cited in Sunday’s report said. For now, however, the plan appears largely frozen.Without receiving countries, agreed travel routes and international backing, Israel has not been able to turn the migration directorate into a large-scale exit mechanism.That has left many Gazans trapped between Israel’s stated willingness to allow departures, Egypt and other countries’ refusal to absorb them.Two Israeli government ministers blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the failure to implement the relocation plan, claiming that Netanyahu never intended to move forward with the plan.One of the two ministers added, however, that without strong backing by the United States, including pressure on third-party countries to accept Gazans, the plan was hamstrung from the get-go.“There were indeed talks with countries to establish agreements with them for taking in Gazans,” the minister said. “Some demanded absurd sums, but without American backing and with counterpressure from the Arab world, it was clear that the migration destination had been pushed aside and only the directorate remained.”A second official, said Netanyahu, not Trump, was primarily to blame for the plan’s failure.“The government had half a year to work with what Trump gave before he walked it back. They simply don’t want to. Just as Netanyahu did not want to evacuate Khan al-Ahmar, just as he did not apply sovereignty in the Jordan Valley. After all, when he wanted to persuade Trump to strike Iran, he succeeded.”The post Israeli effort to resettle Gazans abroad stalls despite requests to emigrate appeared first on World Israel News.