France’s Gaza evacuation scheme: Israel’s Trojan horse for ethnic cleansing?
As European states quietly extract select Gazans under the guise of humanitarian evacuation, Tel Aviv’s goal of demographic reengineering may be unfolding – with French complicity and Arab passivity in tow.
The occupation state’s extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – who also holds a position in the Ministry of Defense – laid bare Tel Aviv’s maximalist colonial ambitions when he declared on 29 April at the illegal Israeli settlement of Eli in the occupied West Bank:
“We will end this campaign when Syria is dismantled, Hezbollah is severely beaten, Iran is stripped of its nuclear threat, Gaza is cleansed of Hamas and hundreds of thousands of Gazans are on their way out of it to other countries, our hostages are returned, some to their homes and some to the graves of Israel.”
The finance minister said this after weeks of growing reports about the quiet exodus of Gazans to Europe – some via Ramon Airport in the south of occupied Palestine, others through Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. The latest incident, documented in a circulated video, indicated France as their destination.
What stands out is the conspicuous ambiguity surrounding these evacuations and the deafening silence from western governments and international institutions. This silence appears deliberate – allowing Israel to exploit the narrative while sparing officials the inconvenience of challenging US President Donald Trump’s unhinged but persistent deportation fantasies.
Smotrich’s statement – and the covert movements now unfolding – come nearly 19 months into Israel’s brutal war on Gaza. They follow repeated Israeli threats to forcibly displace its population. Yet, if the course of this war makes anything clear, it is that the occupation state’s primary objective has been the mass killing and starvation of Palestinians – to break their resistance and instill terror regionally – long before any organized transfer effort.
France claims evacuations ‘predate’ war
In the case of the most recent departures to France, The Cradle speaks with informed French diplomatic sources familiar with the operation. They confirm that dozens of Palestinians have traveled to Paris, but insist it was under an older program launched at the start of the war for French passport holders or their relatives living in Gaza.
Still, the sources acknowledge the program has expanded to include “French-speaking professionals and individuals affiliated with the French Cultural Institute in Gaza.” The expansion, they explain, reflects “logistical adjustments” rather than any political agenda.
They categorically dismiss claims made by human rights groups, such as the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, that France is facilitating a broader evacuation. The sources add that they personally oversaw the removal of French nationals and their immediate relatives, telling The Cradle, the program was suspended after the Israeli takeover of Rafah.
“But in light of Europe’s opposition to Palestinian deportation, Israel saw an opportunity to reopen this old program as a gateway to expand it to new groups,” the sources say.
What’s different this time is the coordination through Ramallah, with the involvement of the French embassy and the Palestinian Authority (PA). However, the number of evacuees remains very limited and does not include second-degree relatives – though some academics and artists “with cultural ties to France” were among those who left.
EU states shuffle a chosen few while deporting others
According to the same sources, the opposite is actually occurring: There is resistance to any laws or legislation to admit those fleeing the war.
More revealing still is Haaretz’s 15 April report that France and “other international actors” are engaged in talks with Egypt to temporarily house the displaced during a reconstruction phase. In exchange, Cairo would receive partial debt relief and a larger reconstruction role, effectively monetizing temporary displacement.
France’s growing footprint in the Palestinian file has reached new heights, with French President Emmanuel Macron spearheading efforts to “renew leadership” in Ramallah. Paris is pursuing this through two tracks: joint sponsorship with Saudi Arabia of a June 2025 “peace conference” to back Cairo’s Gaza reconstruction plan, and direct pressure on PA President Mahmoud Abbas to appoint a deputy – a move already underway. The EU, in return, has pledged €1 billion (around $1.07 billion) in aid to the PA over two years.
Israel, meanwhile, seeks to insert safeguards into any future deal. As reported by Israeli media, Paris is proposing a monitoring mechanism that would allow Israel to carry out “necessary” military operations in Gaza post-withdrawal, similar to the US–French model in postwar Lebanon.
Yet senior Egyptian diplomatic sources tell The Cradle that Cairo has rejected evacuations of dual nationals through Israeli crossings. Although these movements are limited, Egypt fears they could set a precedent.
The official goes on to note that Egypt has secured promises from European counterparts to oppose both voluntary and forced migration or any large-scale evacuation of Gaza.
Coerced surrender mistaken for evacuation
Multiple Palestinian sources with ties to European capitals, along with Hamas officials monitoring the issue, tell The Cradle of a disturbing new pattern: young Palestinians in Gaza – unaffiliated with the resistance – are surrendering themselves to occupation forces. Their hope is that arrest may offer temporary food and shelter, or even deportation.
But Israeli forces often deviate from these expectations. If not shot on sight, these young Palestinians are interrogated and returned to Gaza – sometimes with offers to become informants. There is no active protocol for deportation, and no known operational mechanism tied to Israel’s recently announced “voluntary deportation unit.” If such a scheme existed, these desperate youth would be its first test case.
According to one senior Palestinian official, only around 150 individuals have been evacuated to France since the latest wave of displacement began. All exited via Kerem Shalom crossing under prior coordination with European governments.
These were people with academic or cultural scholarships, EU-based first-degree relatives, or evacuees whose requests had been stalled by the Rafah incursion, the source reveals.
Germany, meanwhile, has launched a full evacuation of its GIZ (German Agency for International Cooperation) staff in Gaza. Berlin is offering these personnel and their families housing, stipends, schooling, and intensive German-language courses – around 120 individuals in total.
Belgium has implemented a similar but smaller-scale operation. It has provided French-language education to agency employees and enabled a limited number of Palestinian citizens to bring one or two first-degree relatives.
Australia, in coordination with the Israeli Foreign Ministry, has also acted on individual cases involving family ties. Canberra is reportedly reviewing ways to extend the stay of Palestinians with expiring visitor visas, but has not clarified whether it will offer them Safe Haven or permanent protection status.
Importantly, none of these evacuations have involved Egyptian nationals or residents of Persian Gulf countries. The coordination is tightly confined to EU member states and a few select western partners.
Regional exclusions reflect political boundaries
The geographic selectivity of these operations exposes the limits of their supposed humanitarian nature. Even when Rafah crossing was operational, Lebanese nationals, Syrian residents, and Palestinian refugees from Syria were barred from crossing, despite lobbying from Beirut and Damascus. Cairo cited Israeli objections to justify its refusal.
This selective policy amounts to collective punishment, targeting not only Palestinians but all nationalities deemed politically undesirable in Tel Aviv’s eyes.
The question lingers: Is this a test run for mass deportation?
Palestinian faction leaders in both Gaza and Beirut who speak with The Cradle admit their lingering fears about internal displacement and external resettlement. But they also detect a clear retreat from Washington – one that is already influencing Israel’s posture.
They point to several factors: unyielding Palestinian opposition, uncompromising Egyptian resistance, and – albeit inconsistently – Jordanian hesitation. These forces have collectively stymied the deportation scheme. Compared to 1948, today’s demographic realities render a repeat impossible.
Even if Palestinians were relocated to nearby Arab states, it would solve nothing. Their proximity to Palestine ensures renewed resistance. If a displacement project must proceed, it would need to send Palestinians far beyond the region – not to European countries that may eventually grant them citizenship, enabling a legal return to Israel itself.
Mass resistance: Israel’s biggest fear
Recent history offers a telling case study. Despite intensive military operations, Israel has not dared to expel the residents of Jenin, Tulkarm, or Nour Shams refugee camps beyond nearby villages. It has not pushed them toward the Jordan Valley or even central West Bank cities.
Instead, Tel Aviv describes these displacements as “temporary” until the camps are “cleansed” – while effectively demolishing them.
This is not due to a lack of military capacity or fear of Jordan. Israel knows the conditions for forced mass displacement are not yet ripe.
Despite overwhelming firepower, Palestinians have not broken. On the contrary, their refusal to capitulate – despite being outgunned – is palpable. Any actual implementation of forced displacement in Gaza or the West Bank could spark the one thing Israel dreads most: a broad-based popular uprising.
Egypt’s leverage: Gaza’s population in limbo
There is one final, crucial detail. Nearly 100,000 Palestinians fled to Egypt during the war. The most recent wave entered after Israel’s occupation of Rafah in May 2024. These people have now lived in Egypt for a year and a half. Yet Cairo has not granted them residency, nor facilitated third-country travel by enabling visa applications through surrounding embassies.
They remain in bureaucratic and existential limbo, awaiting the reconstruction and reopening of Rafah, subsisting on the bare minimum.
Why has Cairo neither integrated them nor deported them?
A senior Egyptian security source tells The Cradlethat Cairo is deliberately holding onto the “Gazan card.” Unlike its quieter absorption of refugee flows from Sudan, Syria, and Libya – who remain largely without legal status or public support – Egypt is actively keeping Gaza’s Palestinians in bureaucratic limbo.
Instead, Egypt prefers to use them as leverage to pressure the west to open Rafah and maintain a humanitarian crisis that can be weaponized.
This policy, while tactically sound for Cairo, is devastating for the displaced. It degrades their dignity and blocks any future for them and their children.
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