The Palestinians firmly condemned the proposal of the American president Donald Trump to move them from the Gaza Strip and to send them to Egypt and Jordan – a suggestion that aroused concerns about ethnic cleaning.
Trump told journalists on Saturday that it was time to “clean up” the besieged Gaza Strip, urging Jordanian and Egyptian leaders to welcome Palestinians from Gaza, temporarily or permanently.
The proposal was categorically rejected by the Palestinians on Sunday, the Palestinian Authority (AP) based in Ramallah claiming that it would violate its “red lines”, while the inhabitants of Gaza insisted that they would remain in the Coastal enclave.
“It is impossible for people to accept this,” the Palestinian citizen Nafiz Halawa told Al Jazeera from Nuseira, in the center of Gaza. “The weak could leave because of the suffering they have endured, but the idea that we left our country … It is absolutely impossible.”
Elham Al-Shabli also rejected this idea. “If we wanted to leave, we would have done it for a long time. The genocidal war they are leading will have nothing to do with the Palestinians and we will stay despite what is happening, “she said.
The AP said in a statement that the plan “constitutes a blatant violation of the red lines against which we have always warned”.
“We emphasize that the Palestinian people will never give up their land or their holy places, and that we will not allow the rehearsal of the disasters (Nakba) of 1948 and 1967. Our people will remain determined and will not leave their homeland”, a- he added. .
He urged Trump to maintain the cease-fire agreement in Gaza, to ensure the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces, to establish the Palestinian authority as a director of the enclave and to advance efforts to the creation of ‘A sovereign Palestinian state.
Hamas, the Palestinian group which governs Gaza, said that the American administration must abandon such proposals that align with Israeli “projects” and which come into conflict with the rights of the Palestinian people, which has already resisted ” Proceedings of the most odious genocide ”and in population trips since. Israel launched his war against Gaza in October 2023.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (JIP), which has been fighting alongside Hamas in Gaza for more than 15 months, described Trump’s comments to encourage “war crimes”.
The Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ayman Safadi, said that “the rejection of the trip is fixed and immutable” and that Amman is delighted to work with the Trump administration to advance efforts towards the recognition of a sovereign Palestinian state .
Trump’s comments also seemed to surprise the republican senator Lindsey Graham, who said during an interview with the American channel CNN that he did not consider the idea “as being too practical” and thought that the Arab countries of the region would reject it.
Israel prevents the return to northern Gaza
Trump’s comments come a week after the entry into force of a truce agreement between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, with the conclusion of two series of captives for prisoners.
But thousands of Palestinians were waiting on Sunday at the roadblocks to return to their homes in the north of Gaza, while Israel refused to open the crossing points after having accused Hamas of raping the cease-fire agreement.
Israel said that he would open the way after the release of the Israeli civil prisoner Arbel Yehud, owned by the JIP in Gaza. He indicates that by virtue of the truce agreement, civil prisoners were to be released before the soldiers.
The JIP told Al Jazeera on Sunday that Yehud would be released before Saturday in exchange for 30 Palestinian prisoners.
The vice-secretary general of the JIP, Mohammed al-Hindi, also said that his group “awaited a practical response” from the mediators on the way in which the Palestinians would be authorized to return home in northern Gaza.
Hani Mahmoud of Al Jazeera, covering a crossing point in Al-Rasheed Street in Gaza, said that there were “no tents” to provide shelter to displaced people.
“There is no place for them here; There are no tents. Most people stay here because they dismantled their tents, because they thought that after the release of the four Israeli prisoners, they could cross the northern part of the Gaza Strip, as agreed, “he said .
“But it seems that they will have to sleep here again tonight.”
