Alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, President Trump said Palestinians should be removed from Gaza on a “permanent” basis.
“You look over the decades, it’s all death in Gaza. This has been happening for years, it’s all death. If we can get a beautiful area to resettle people permanently in nice homes where they can be happy and not be shot and not be killed,” Trump told reporters.
Trump’s repeated calls to “clean out” Palestinians from Gaza have raised fears that the US may support the ethnic cleansing of the territory, the ideal outcome for the Israeli government. Despite very strong opposition from Egypt, Jordan, and other Arab states, Trump has continued to double down on the idea.
Trump said at the White House that he believes Palestinians can be resettled in “areas where the leaders currently say no.” He said Palestinians could no longer live there due to the destruction caused by the US-backed Israeli bombing campaign and the threat of unexploded ordnances, among other things.
The president said repeatedly that the conditions in Gaza have been “like hell,” a result of the Israeli blockade that was first imposed on the Strip in 2007. “I don’t think people should be going back to Gaza. I think Gaza has been very unlucky for them. They’ve lived like hell, they’ve lived like you’re living in hell. Gaza is not a place for people to be living. And the only reason they want to go back, and I believe this strongly, is because they have no alternative,” he said.
When asked if Palestinians would have the right to return to Gaza, Trump said, “It would be my hope that we could do something really nice, really good, where they wouldn’t want to return. Why would they want to return? That place has been hell.”
Israeli officials have welcomed Trump’s idea, which has overwhelming support among Jewish Israelis, and frame what would be ethnic cleansing as “voluntary migration.” But since Israel has made Gaza uninhabitable, Palestinians who don’t want to leave might have no choice but to go for their survival if given the option. Not only have the majority of residential buildings in Gaza been destroyed, but the infrastructure has also been completely shattered.
Regardless of the living situation in Gaza, removing the Palestinian population would face significant resistance from Hamas, which has replaced the fighters it has lost in the Israeli onslaught, according to US intelligence. A Hamas official said on Tuesday that Trump’s proposal was a “recipe for chaos” in the region.
“Our people in the Gaza Strip will not allow these plans to pass. What is required is an end to the occupation and aggression against our people, not their expulsion from their land,” said Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri, according to Al Jazeera.
Trump and Netanyahu met amid the fragile ceasefire in Gaza, and there’s a significant chance the genocidal war will restart as the Israeli leader is reportedly looking for US support not to implement the second phase of the deal. Netanyahu said his war goals still include the destruction of Hamas, which would be impossible if the full ceasefire deal is implemented.
