Israeli ministers' Gaza remarks condemned

CAIRO/GAZA STRIP — The foreign ministers of Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Indonesia and Pakistan on Sunday strongly condemned remarks by two Israeli ministers concerning the displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

In a joint statement, the ministers condemned recent remarks by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Defense Minister Israel Katz, including proposals for plans and mechanisms aimed at "forcibly removing Palestinians from their land".

"Such inflammatory statements and proposals flagrantly violate principles of international law, including international humanitarian law, and pose a direct threat to the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people," they said.

They reaffirmed their rejection of any attempts or plans to displace Palestinians, whether within or outside the occupied Palestinian territory, and warned against turning calls for forced displacement into declared policy or concrete measures aimed at uprooting Palestinians from their land.

The ministers stressed that the Gaza Strip is an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territory and underscored the need to preserve the unity of the Palestinian territory in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

They reaffirmed that "the only path toward achieving a just and lasting peace lies in the implementation of the two-state solution with the establishment of an independent Palestinian state along the lines of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital".

The ministers also called on the international community, particularly the UN Security Council, to shoulder its responsibilities, firmly confront attempts to impose a new demographic or geographic reality in the occupied Palestinian territory, and ensure respect for international law.

Fragile ceasefire

An October 2025 ceasefire halted major fighting in the territory, but it failed to end strikes by the Israeli military.

An Israeli strike killed a man and his 8-year-old daughter in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, health officials said.

Mohammed Abu Selmia, head of the Al Shifa Hospital, the enclave's largest medical facility, said the airstrike hit a vehicle in western Gaza City, killing Youssef Akila and his daughter, Wafaa, and wounding six others.

An Israeli military spokesperson said forces targeted a Hamas militant and the military was still looking into the results of the attack.

Later on Sunday, two separate Israeli strikes killed two other people, including a child in Gaza City, medics said. They added that an Israeli strike killed at least one man near the telecommunications company east of Gaza City, while an Israeli tank at a school housing displaced families killed a seven-year-old girl, taking Sunday's death toll to at least four.

Meanwhile, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the evacuation of some settlements in the West Bank deemed illegal under Israeli law, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Sunday.

Netanyahu has given the instruction to evacuate certain settlements, Smotrich said, adding that he did not approve of the measure.

Several Israeli media outlets also reported on Sunday that Netanyahu had issued the order, with Israel's largest news site Ynet saying it was the result of US pressure.

In the northern West Bank, Israeli and Palestinian sources said that a Palestinian man was shot dead by Israeli forces on Monday after he allegedly stabbed and wounded an Israeli man.

Israel's state-owned Kan TV News reported that an Israeli man sustained moderate to serious injuries in what it described as a "terrorist stabbing attack" near the village of Usarin, east of Nablus city.

XINHUA-AGENCIES