Let's talk about Gaza's residents. Let's discuss them again now because the new Trump narrative about them – regardless of whether motivated by real estate or international legal considerations – packages them in a confusing and misleading way. The relocation idea itself isn't bad, but the reasoning behind it is flawed.
The Gazans are not unfortunate and pitiful victims of the war who need to be rescued from the ruins and given hope and a future elsewhere through consensual transfer. On the contrary: Gaza is the modern-day Sodom, and many of its men, women, and children are "wicked sinners." If Abraham our forefather were to return for a moment and engage in dialogue with God about Gaza similar to his biblical discourse about Sodom, he would struggle to advocate even for the residents of this modern Sodom.
The Trump packaging – even if unintentionally – rehabilitates the Gazans, and it is misleading and wrong, as we're not talking about a few bad apples that grew there, but rather a population that either is Hamas or supports Hamas, deeply involved in the massacre, kidnappings and cult of "martyrs," death and murder. This population is the breeding ground of this Nazi organization that called and calls in its charter for Israel's destruction – a population that already in 2006 brought Hamas to power through democratic elections, by majority vote, under European Union observer supervision.
Their sins must be remembered today before some among us fall into this trap again. Tens of thousands of Gazans took part in tunneling Gaza, profited from this death enterprise, and kept its secrets. Tens of thousands of Strip residents earned their living over the years from the smuggling industry and Gaza weapons production. Tens of thousands participated in the "March of Return" – a laundered name for terror marches along the fence that included attempted breaches into Israel, throwing explosive devices and firebombs, and launching incendiary kites that set our fields ablaze. On the eve of the massacre, thousands of such "uninvolved" individuals participated in marches marking weak points and breach locations and planted explosives. They took part in the massive deception operation that succeeded beyond Hamas' wildest expectations.
About 20,000 "uninvolved" Gazan workers were employed in Israeli communities near Gaza before the massacre. Some provided Hamas with detailed intelligence that aided the massacre – locations of safe rooms, armories, parking lots, and vehicle numbers. This was part of the pogrom's infrastructure, the "uninvolved's" contribution to the atrocity.
What's the price tag on a soldier's head?
"Uninvolved" individuals also participated in the massacre itself – thousands of Gazans, including elderly leaning on canes and youth in sandals, who came to join in rape, looting, murder, and kidnapping. Noa Argamani and Avinatan Or, for instance, were kidnapped by Gazan "civilians." Some bodies or body parts were taken by the "uninvolved" to trade in them. In one case it was the severed head of Sergeant Adir Tahar. The IDF found it inside a shoulder bag in a refrigerator at a Gazan ice cream shop. His killers tried selling the head to profit-seeking "uninvolved" individuals for thousands of dollars, so they could make a hefty profit from Israel.
In other cases, "uninvolved" individuals stripped corpses of jewelry and valuables and even assisted in hiding bodies in concealed burials. An "uninvolved" photographer named Mahmoud, partner of Batia Holin from Kibbutz Kfar Aza in a pre-war photo exhibition, was revealed as a Hamas member when he tried calling Holin on the massacre day itself to determine military and soldier locations. The terrified Holin belatedly realized her poetic and artistic partner was another Hamas member.
These "uninvolved" individuals danced in a frenzy around pickup trucks carrying kidnapped children, women, elderly, and young men, shouting "death to the Jews," and helping Hamas hide them. An entire network of thousands of "uninvolved" apartments aided Hamas in this. Most hostages freed by IDF operations were held in such apartments. Those released in recent weeks provide additional details about this Gazan network, which has earned the nickname "A Flat to Hide" – a dark twist on Leah Goldberg's beloved children's book "A Flat to Rent." Some apartment owners were financially compensated for their services.
The "uninvolved" helped Hamas move rockets to hiding places. "Uninvolved" mothers repeatedly declared how proud they were to send their children to battle to become "martyrs." "Uninvolved" teachers taught Gazan children that killing Jews is a religious commandment. "Uninvolved" children, graduates of Hamas terror camps, passed notes and messages, and even weapons and ammunition hidden in food baskets, between Hamas positions during the war. A company commander in Hamas' Zeitoun Battalion testified to this under interrogation, but IDF soldiers didn't need that – they saw it with their own eyes.
The sin and its punishment
These "unfortunates" whom Donald Trump now wants to exile from Gaza to "improve their living conditions" almost conducted a lynch of Gadi Moses and Arbel Yahoud, and distributed sweets and treats after the massacre. Their homes concealed shaft openings leading to tunnels, and hid rockets, rifles, grenades and extensive weaponry behind closets, under children's beds, in walls and floors. The homes often also contained Hitler's writings ("Mein Kampf") and Hamas hate literature.
Returning hostages only complete the picture. Mia Shem says "there isn't one innocent civilian there." Shir Segal relates hearing hours of horror stories from her father, giving her "such a feeling in my body that made me want to drive to Gaza and take them apart one by one." Other hostages describe how Gazan children spat on them or offered them food but pulled it away before they could taste it.
Gaza is Hamas and Hamas is Gaza, and the separation there between "involved" and "uninvolved," between "terrorists" and "non-terrorists" is often mistaken. International humanitarian law, also known as "laws of war," cannot truly be applied to Gaza. Gaza is one of the cases where collective punishment is moral, because the collective itself supported, identified with, engaged in, or was employed in terror for years. When a civilian population is distinct from terrorists, international humanitarian law can be applied to it, but that's not Gaza's story. The opposite – therefore our war isn't just against Hamas, but against the Gaza state and its residents.
Even if there is a portion of uninvolved population in Gaza, the fact that so many Gazans were involved in terror and war should redefine Trump's migration plan as a classic case of sin and punishment: whoever murdered, or supported or rejoiced, or aided, or identified with murder, rape, and dismemberment of Jewish bodies and removal of their eyes, and sought to uproot us from our land and soil, ultimately pays in the same currency – loss of land and home. Don't agonize over this, and don't try to beautify the voluntary transfer plans. Gaza's residents have rightfully earned them.
