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Washington: Washington’s reaction to Trump’s comments on the weekend regarding the US administration’s desire to take over the Gaza Strip was unclear on Wednesday, but the United Nations has claimed that ethnic cleansing is taking place in the Palestinian territory.
When attacked by Palestinians, Arab governments and global leaders, Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the transfer was temporal and that Gazans would simply be relocated for some time while the White House said that there was no plan to send US troops.
Trump, however, ascribed popularity to it, to the sound of audible gasps as he was unveiling it during a joint press and photo ops session with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
Pronouncing few specifics of how the United States may remove more than two million Palestinians or manage the war-scarred land, Trump remarked on Tuesday: “The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job on it as well. We'll own it." subsequently in a post, Rubio declared that the idea “was not meant as hostile” before referring to it instead as “the ultimate generosity – the offer to participate in the rebuilding and to be the ones to control the rebuilding.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt soon added that Washington will not provide money for Gaza rebuilding following over a year of conflict between US counterpart Israel and Palestinians’ Hamas. A Spokesperson for US said that it does not mean American soldiers on the ground, nor is it an implication that the American tax payers will have to provide for this. Many organizations warned against ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in particular the United Nations had warned this.
”Fundamentally, exercising the sovereignty and inalienable rights of Palestinians is about the Palestinian people’s ability to be humans in their own homeland,” the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, told a UN committee for the status of Palestinians.
Speaking to the press before Guterres delivered his statement, his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric stated that the UN secretary-general considered any forced displacement of people to be ethnic cleansing. President Emmanuel Macron of France and President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt also said that any transfer of the Palestinians would not be acceptable.
”This would be a breach of international law, counterproductive to the establishment of Palestinian state and the cause of instability for Egypt and Jordan,” the two said. Palestinian officials, Arab leaders and rights groups did not waste time to express their disappointments on Trump’s remarks. Essentials of the plan were presented to Hamas in 2007 when it seized rule of the Gaza Strip, but the group deemed it as “racist”, “aggressive”, and inflammatory.
Leavitt mentioned that Trump wanted palestinian people only to be moved out of Gaza for some time and not permanently. It is a destruction ground at the moment. It is spoiled and not good for any living human being, this was her response to my question. Due to the response to Hamas attack that occurred in October 2023, most of the facilities in Gaza are destroyed; these include schools, hospitals, and most civil aspects of the basic amenities. According to HRW, the destruction of infrastructures in Gaza demonstrates that the Israeli government will deliberately alter certain areas of the strip and make them uninhabitable.
“Trump’s plan propose would not only increase in involved complicity in war crimes, but more actively be the instigators of many atrocities” said Lama Fakih, an HRW regional director.
'We will remain'
Trump, who also recommended he may visit Gaza, hinted it that it will not be reconstructed for Palestinians. Although, in the later interview, Leavitt stated that he has been ‘very clear for them to acept the Palestinians for a temporary basis just for a while until we reconstruct their home in Palestine.’
Before the beginning of Tuesday’s shocking idea, Trump as usual of directly scaring the Palestinians suggested that they should carry on living in Egypt and Jordan. The Palestinian Authority pointedly has declared its intention to remain in the peace process and the region. “They can kill as many women and children as they want, but we will stay strong in our homeland,” remarked 41-year-old man from Gaza called Ahmed Halasa.
'Winning'
In Washington, Netanyahu attributed Trump as the greatest friend of Israel and highlighted his flexibility in approaching any problem. During the interview with Fox News on Wednesday night, he said that he has found the first good idea in Trump’s suggestions. It is a good idea in general, and I believe it should be researched or should be pursued, and should be implemented or be done because the idea will bring about a new change for all individuals.
But he also indicated it was not an idea that Palestinians have to leave the land forever. In his comments, he said: “They can leave, they can then come back, they can relocate and come back, but you have to rebuild Gaza.” The hostilities in Gaza erupted when Hamas struck Israel on October 7, 2023, and caused the death of 940 Palestinians and 270 others mostly civilians, as per AP gathered from the Israeli official statistics.
Israel’s retaliation has led to death of 47,518 individuals in which majority are civilians as reported by the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled Gaza strip. As for the UN, it finds the numbers credible.
