Palestinians could leave Gaza, Israel says

More aid seekers are slain. Critics warn migration plan could be ethnic cleansing.

- By MELANIE LIDMAN AND SAMY MAGDY

ABDALLAH F.S. ALATTAR Anadolu

PALESTINIAN victims of Israeli attacks are taken to a hospital in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on Wednesday.

Israeli gunfire killed at least 25 people seeking aid in Gaza on Wednesday, health officials and witnesses said, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will “allow” Palestinians to leave during an upcoming military offensive in some of the territory's most populated areas.

Netanyahu wants to realize President Trump's vision ofrelocating much of Gaza’s population of over 2 million people through what he refers to as “voluntary migration” — and what critics have warned could be ethnic cleansing.

“Give them the opportunity to leave! First, from combat zones, and also from the strip if they want,” Netanyahu said in an interview aired Tuesday with Israeli TV station i24 to discuss the planned offensive in areas that include Gaza City, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people shelter.

“We are not pushing them out but allowing them to leave.”

Witnesses and staff at Nasser and Awda hospitals, which received the bodies, said people were shot on their way to aid distribution sites or while awaiting convoys entering Gaza.

Efforts to revive ceasefire talks have resumed after apparently breaking down last month. Officials from the militant group Hamas and Egypt met Wednesday in Cairo, according to Hamas official Taher al-Nounou.

Israel has no plans to send its negotiating team to talks in Cairo, Netanyahu’s office said.

Israel’s plans to widen its military offensive against Hamas to parts of Gaza it does not yet control have sparked condemnation at home and abroad, and could be intended to raise pressure on the militant group to reach a ceasefire.

The militants still hold 50 hostages taken in the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war. Israel believes around 20 remain alive. Families fear a new offensive endangers them.