Trump plan or not, Israel is letting more Palestinians leave Gaza

For more than a year, Israeli authorities prevented Dr Ayed Ayoub from escaping Gaza's hunger and war with his family for an academic fellowship in France.

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CAIRO/RAMALLAH/ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER - He finally left in April, after Israel unexpectedly eased its tight control of the border.

Dr Ayoub, his wife and their four children are among around 1,000 Palestinians who have left Gaza following Israel's relaxation of rules in recent months, bussed from the enclave to board flights to Europe and elsewhere, according to interviews with affected Gazans and foreign diplomats.

"The situation in Gaza has become unbearable," said 57-year-old Dr Ayoub, an engineer who earned his doctorate and master's degree at a French university after moving there in the early 2000s. His return was as part of a group of 115 Gazans accepted by France in April.

The new departures require a request to Israel by a foreign government, and their numbers remain relatively small.

Reuters could not establish why Israel was now letting more Palestinians leave Gaza, which comes amid an international outcry over the humanitarian conditions there. However, the easing of restrictions parallels the Israeli government's stated goal of facilitating the resettlement of Gaza's population in other countries.

For Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, talk of mass resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza has helped shore up support with far-right allies who oppose a further truce with Hamas and want to re-establish Jewish settlements there.

Interior Minister Moshe Arbel has described the recent departure of Gazans to European countries as a bid to temporarily and voluntarily vacate the Gaza Strip to allow for its reconstruction, a process he said was inspired by Mr Donald Trump.

The US President has proposed developing the enclave as a coastal resort, free of Palestinians.