Trump wants neighbors to clean up Gaza for the Palestinians

“In the Gaza Strip, our Palestinian people have suffered death and destruction for 15 months … without leaving their land, they will not accept any offer or solution, even if it appears with good intentions under the title of reconstruction, as announced by us,” said Bassem Naim. , a member of the Hamas Politburo told the BBC.

“Our people will block such projects, just as they have pursued all plans for displacement and an alternative homeland for decades,” he said.

In the West Bank, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas “expressed his strong rejection and condemnation of any project aimed at removing our people from the Gaza Strip.”

Asked about Trump’s comments, Abu Yahya Rashid, a displaced man in the southern city of Khan Younis, said:

“We are the ones who decide our destiny and what we want. This land belongs to us and our ancestors throughout history. We will not leave it except for dead bodies.”

Decades of US foreign policy have led to the creation of a Palestinian state, with Gaza as a key component. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu He denies it.

Donald Trump has a long history of talking about headlines and floating ideas that never bear fruit.

However, the idea of ​​encouraging Gazans to move to neighboring countries has long been pushed by hard-wing members of the Netanyahu government.

Former national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir of the Jewish Power Party said Trump “did it” for the initiative to move residents from Gaza to Jordan and Egypt.

“One of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s demands is to encourage voluntary emigration,” he said.

The current Israeli finance minister, the far-right smotrich, also said that Jewish settlements should be allowed to be rebuilt in Gaza so that Palestinians can emigrate to neighboring countries.

Such comments will enrage Palestinians and link supporters of the so-called “two-state solution” – the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

There are fears among Palestinians that those around President Trump are pushing him in a more extreme direction when it comes to Middle East politics.

This month, Trump’s running mate, evangelical Christian Mike Huckabee, announced his view that there should be no Palestinian state.

“The Palestinians had a chance in Gaza,” he said in a US television interview.

“And what happened there.”

Gaza has been under Israeli occupation since 1967.

Huckabee’s comments contradict six decades of US policy in the Middle East, where Washington has long pushed for a “two-state solution”.

The U.S. has previously said it considers any forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza or the occupied West Bank.