RIYADH: Saudi Arabia led widespread condemnation on Thursday of suggestions by far-right extremist ministers in the Israeli government that Palestinians should be forced to migrate from Gaza.

Israel’s National Security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called for “a solution to encourage the emigration of Gaza’s residents” and the re-establishment of Israeli settlements in the Palestinian enclave, a day after Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich made similar comments.

Saudi Arabia “categorically condemns and rejects the comments of the two ministers,” the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. The Kingdom called on the international community to act in the face of the Israeli government’s “persistence in violating international law.”

Qatar also “condemned in the strongest terms” the comments made by the two ministers.

“The policy of collective punishment and forced displacement practiced by the occupation authorities against the inhabitants of Gaza will not change the fact that Gaza is Palestinian land and will remain Palestinian,” Doha said.

Kuwait warned against “Israeli plans to displace Gaza residents in particular, and the Palestinian people in general.” The UAE, which normalized ties with Israel in 2020, also “condemned in the strongest terms the extremist statements” of the two ministers.

The UAE voiced its “categorical rejection of such offensive statements and of all practices … which threaten further escalation and instability in the region.”
The US, France and the EU have also denounced the comments.

Both ministers are notoriously anti-Palestinian. Ben-Gvir has a criminal conviction for supporting terrorism and has faced charges for hate speech. Smotrich lives in an illegal settlement in the occupied West Bank and denies the existence of the Palestinian people.