Donald Trump’s proposal for the US to “take over” Gaza and remove much of its Palestinian population has sparked a fierce global backlash – with residents of the besieged territory making clear that if 15 months of brutal war was not enough to make them leave, the US president’s bullish rhetoric means nothing.
Arab nations across the Middle East and Europe moved swiftly to condemn Mr Trump’s remarks from the White House, where he said that the US “will take over the Gaza Strip” with a “a long-term ownership position” – estimating that about 1.8 million of the near-2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza would have to be relocated to achieve his vision of turning what he called a “hell hole” into “the Riviera of the Middle East”.
Sitting next to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr Trump said those being forced out would be housed in Jordan, Egypt and other countries – suggesting these neighbouring nations would come around to the idea despite their outright rejections. He said Gaza “has been a symbol of death and destruction for so many decades, and so bad for the people anywhere near it, and especially those who live there”.
Saudi Arabia said it “unequivocally rejected” the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza and that it would not normalise ties with Israel without the establishment of a Palestinian state. Jordan said its monarch, King Abdullah II rejected “any attempts to annex land and displace the Palestinians” – while Egypt stressed the need for reconstruction “without moving the Palestinians”.
Inside Gaza, Basheer al-Dalo, 45, who was forced to flee Israel’s aerial bombardment and ground offensive 12 times before returning during the latest ceasefire to the rubble of his home in north of the territory, said Mr Trump’s demand that Palestinians leave was the “first step to dissolving our people”.
Mr Al-Dalo is one among many in Gaza City – one of the most devastated areas of the Gaza Strip – who have lost their homes and family. “I am talking to you now while I am bleeding from cleaning the rubble,” he told The Independent. “I am talking to you now while we are under the rain, looking for wood for a fire and water to drink,” he said – having made camp in the remains of his home.
“Now it is becoming clear and evident that the reason for the war and its goal was displacement, forcibly or voluntarily, through the practice of systematic destruction,” he continued. “Displacement is the first step to liquidating our cause and dissolving our people. All of these plans are also consistent with Trump’s statements about seizing land from the [Israeli-occupied] West Bank. It is clear that we, the people, are the ones paying the heavy price.”
The UK avoided any direct criticism of Mr Trump’s words directly, but Sir Keir Starmer said that the Palestinians “must be allowed home”.
“They must be allowed to rebuild, and we should be with them in that rebuild, on the way to a two-state solution,” Sir Keir told parliament.
On a visit to Kyiv, the foreign secretary David Lammy said the way forward was a two-state solution to the conflict and added that Israel should exist alongside “a free and viable Palestinian state”.
Across the rest of Europe, France and Germany said that any such movement of Palestinians would violate international law. Both nations – and Spain – also reiterating the need for a two-state solution.
Mr Trump’s proposal comes two weeks after the start of a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, during which Hamas has released some Israeli hostages it is holding in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.
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More than 47,500 people have been killed and 111,000 injured in Gaza since then, according to the health ministry in the enclave. Almost 70 per cent of buildings are estimated to be damaged or destroyed according to the UN, while healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have been destroyed. There are widespread shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter, particularly in the north.
Back in nothern Gaza, Mohammed Shanan, 67, a former bank employee and maths teacher from the Jabalia refugee camp, which has faced heavy bombardment, said he would “rather live in a tent on my land in my homeland than live in a country that is not my country”.
“If Trump says that Gaza is a symbol of destruction, then why does he want it? This is conclusive evidence that he is seeking to annex it to Israel,” he added.
“No matter what happens and no matter the circumstances, we will not give up our land.”
Eman al-Muqayyad, 44, who stayed in the Jabalia refugee camp throughout war, told The Independent the Palestinians will stay and “rebuild it no matter how much money it costs”.
“It is true that Gaza has been severely destroyed, especially Jabalia camp, which has been classified as a place that must be completely removed, but we will stay here and rebuild it no matter how much money or how many years it costs.
“I personally did not leave my home throughout the war; I stayed in my home until the last moment. It is impossible for them to ask us to emigrate completely. This is unacceptable.”
“We have suffered greatly in Gaza, especially the people of the north, where we lived through famine, fire belts, and gunfire, and despite all of that, we did not leave for the south of Gaza. How can we emigrate completely from Gaza?” she asked.
Mr Trump said that his idea to remove almost two million Palestinians “can be paid for by neighbouring countries of great wealth. It could be one, two, three, four, five, seven, eight, 12.” And that Palestinians could be moved to “numerous sites, or it could be one large site. But the people will be able to live in comfort and peace and we’ll make sure something really spectacular is done.”
Under international law including the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the forced deportation of a population can be defined as a war crime and crime against humanity.
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, of the Hamas-rival Palestinian Authority, strongly rejected Mr Trump’s remarks. “We will not allow the rights of our people… to be infringed on,” he stressed, warning that Gaza was “an integral part of the State of Palestine”.
In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which is run by the Palestinian Authority, Mustafa Bargouthi, a leading analyst and former legislator said: “Basically what President Trump is calling for is a war crime a war crime of ethnic cleansing”.
“Palestinians will never accept that. Arab countries will never accept that. It’s a no-go plan and it will not succeed. And I don’t know who’s putting these ideas in his head, but if he thinks that Gaza is for sale, he”s wrong.”
Israeli politicians on the extreme right who have called for Gazans to leave their homes have always said that such moves should be “voluntary”. And it is in that vein that Israel’s foreign minister Gidean Sa’ar greeted Mr Trump’s remarks.
“We must try to find a different solution, a new approach… As long as migration [of Gazans] happens by an individual’s free will, regardless of the location in the world, as long as there is a country that is willing to accept that person, can anyone claim it as immoral,” he told the Knesset.
