Trump's plan to evacuate Gaza does not violate international law

International law specifically provides a structure for implementing legal population transfers. Any other interpretation is not only patently untrue, but horribly cruel to Israelis and Palestinians.

US President Donald Trump articulated a plan to “take ownership of Gaza” and relocate the local population during reconstruction, triggering a storm of absolute rhetorical panic. Claims ranging from “violations of international law” to “ethnic cleansing,” “expulsion” and “forced displacement,” dominate global headlines. Yet these claims all have one thing in common: none of them are legally true.

Photo: AI image for illustration only. Not a real depiction.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri referred to a Palestinian evacuation of Gaza as "expulsion from their land." Hasan Alhasan, a fellow at a Bahrain based think tank, claims evacuation is “forced displacement,” a reference to acts prohibited under the Geneva Conventions. Reuters throws out the phrase, “ethnic cleansing” and the BBC simply described Trump’s plan as “flying in the face of international law.”

These publications, advocates and “experts” have neglected to perform any investigation of actual international law. In fact, Trump’s plan, depending on how it is executed, will most likely pass muster under international law for several reasons.

Forced population transfer is explicitly permitted by international law

We are about to hear a flood of “experts” quoting Article 49 of the Geneva Convention of 1949, which states that forcible population transfers are not permitted. What these experts won’t mention is that the very same Article explicitly does permit forced population transfer, “…if the security of the population or imperative military reasons so demand.” The Article further clarifies that transfers to places outside the relevant territory (ie: outside of Gaza) are permitted “…when for material reasons it is impossible to avoid such displacement.”

In this case, it is indeed “materially impossible” to maintain a civilian population in Gaza: there is insufficient housing and infrastructure, and worse, Gaza remains largely under the control of Hamas: an internationally designated terror organization that uses civilians as human shields to interfere with reconstruction, security, and humanitarian aid, as well as any possibility of eventual peace.

Gazans want to leave

Hamas habitually forces civilians to remain in combat zones, sometimes even opening fire. The terror organization forces Gaza’s civilians to act as a massive human shield, which is a gross violation of numerous international laws, including the First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions. Egypt (which shares a border with Gaza) as well as all other Arab countries, have consistently and firmly rejected the flow of Palestinian civilians into their respective territories, despite ongoing combat.

While it is notoriously difficult to conduct accurate poling in a dictatorship that lacks basic free speech, hundreds of thousands of local residents in Gaza have risked (and in some cases lost) their lives attempting to leave the territory. To allow civilians to leave voluntarily would not only not violate international law, but forcing civilians to remain while they’re being used as human shields does violate international law.

Gaza is not “home”

When international law discusses population transfer, it specifically refers to transferring civilians away from their “homes.” For example, Article 49 states, “Persons thus evacuated shall be transferred back to their homes as soon as hostilities in the area in question have ceased.” (emphasis added). The United Nations, as well as Palestinians themselves, consider most of the population of Gaza to not be “at home” but rather to be “refugees.” Many of the cities in Gaza are officially designated by the UN as “refugee camps,” despite permanent infrastructure. In a particularly clear statement, Hamas recently declared that the return of Palestinians to various parts of the Gaza Strip as a result of the recent ceasefire is only a temporary measure, en route to an eventual violent “return” to their “original homes” inside Israel.

UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer put it succinctly, “If Palestinians in Gaza are refugees, then why is it wrong for Jordan and Egypt to welcome them? If you object that this would uproot them from their homes and lands in Gaza, then why are they being called refugees?”

In short, according to both Palestinian leadership and the United Nations, Gaza is not “home” to most of its residents, and those residents therefore do not enjoy rights to stay there or to return there: according to both Article 49 of the Geneva Conventions as well as other international laws and treaties. This would be true even if forced population transfer were prohibited by international law, yet in this case such transfer is explicitly permitted.

There are still Israeli hostages held captive

There is a gross violation of international law in Gaza, but it’s not what most headlines claim. Over 400 days since October 7, 2023 have passed and an estimated 80 Israelis continue to be held captive by the Hamas terror organization: subject to ongoing starvation, torture and sexual abuse. Not only is taking hostages a gross violation of international laws, including the International Convention Against the Taking of Hostages, but placing any conditions whatsoever on the return of those hostages is also a violation. The hostage deal that Israel has been forced to accept for the return of its citizens is, therefore, a gross violation of international law, because it illegally places conditions on the return of hostages. The fact that even after signing this deal Israelis still remain in captivity is a further violation. Any “legal expert” who objects to moving Palestinians out of harm’s way for the purpose of internationally funded reconstruction, while simultaneously ignoring the hostage crisis, is engaged in the very height of hypocrisy and malice.

There is simply no path to security and prosperity for Israelis, Palestinians and the entire region as long as Hamas and other terror organizations remain in Gaza, and there is simply no way to remove terrorism and begin rebuilding in Gaza without first moving civilians out of harm’s way. International law recognizes this reality, and therefore specifically provides a structure for implementing legal population transfers. Any other interpretation is not only patently untrue and intentionally misleading, but it plants the seeds of further suffering for everyone in the region.