The US president proposed this Saturday evening to move the populations of the Gaza Strip to Egypt and Jordan as part of a peace plan aimed at «clearing out» the Palestinian territory. «An excellent idea,» reacted this Sunday morning a far-right minister in the Israeli government.
The ghost at the White House proposed this Saturday, 25 January, to move the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip to Egypt and Jordan as part of a peace plan consisting of «cleaning house» in the heart of the Palestinian territory, where the truce between the Hebrew State and Hamas entered its second week on Sunday.
The fragile ceasefire that came into force on 19 January already allowed this Saturday for the exchange of four Israeli hostages for some 200 Palestinian prisoners.
Following 15 months of war triggered by Hamas's unprecedented offensive on 7 October 2023, Donald Trump compared the Gaza Strip on Saturday evening to a «demolition site», and announced that he had discussed the situation with King Abdullah II of Jordan, adding that he would do the same on Sunday with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
« We're talking about roughly 1.5 million people, and we're simply clearing them out. You know, over the centuries, this site has seen numerous conflicts. And I don't know, something must be happening », Donald Trump told reporters aboard the presidential aircraft, Air Force One.
« I would prefer to get involved with certain Arab nations and build housing in another location where they might finally be able to live in peace for once », added the new US President.
Also according to the latter, the displacement of Gaza's residents could be « temporary or long-term ».
Without delay, this proposal by Donald Trump was received as « an excellent idea », an extreme-right minister in the Israeli government opined as early as Sunday morning.
« After years of glorifying terrorism, the Palestinians will be able to establish a new and beautiful life elsewhere », added Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in a statement, whose party is vital to Benjamin Netanyahu's government coalition.
It is a fact that the vast majority of Gaza's 2.4 million inhabitants have already been displaced, often multiple times since the start of the conflict and since Hamas's attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023.
A new supply of American weapons
Donald Trump, who often boasted during his first presidential term that Israel «had never had a better friend in the White House», has also confirmed that he ordered a shipment of 2,000-pound (907 kg) bombs to be sent to his ally.
In its time, the Biden administration suspended deliveries of such munitions last year, which are dropped by aircraft, both precise and endowed with great destructive power, considering that the latter would cause a «great human tragedy».
For his part, Donald Trump had exerted intense pressure on both sides for a ceasefire agreement to be concluded before his inauguration on 20 January.
As part of this agreement, Israeli female soldiers Daniella Gilboa, Karina Ariev, Liri Albag and Naama Levy, aged 19 to 20, were thus released on Saturday and escorted back to Israel, where they were reunited with their parents, whose long embraces were widely broadcast in images by the IDF.
The young women, who were doing their military service at the time of their abduction and were stationed on guard duty near the Gaza Strip, were then transferred by helicopter to a hospital near Tel Aviv.
Unsatisfied with this initial exchange and later that evening, several relatives of hostages and their supporters demonstrated in Tel Aviv to demand the return of the remaining hostages—87 people, including 34 dead according to the army, out of a total of 251 abducted on 7 October 2023.
33 hostages for 1,900 prisoners
On the other side in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, a crowd waving Palestinian flags jubilantly welcomed some of the roughly 200 newly released Palestinians.
Carried on the shoulders of fervent locals, still wearing their prison uniform, they were able to reunite with their loved ones amidst barely contained emotion.
An initial exchange of three Israeli hostages for 90 Palestinian prisoners had already taken place on the first day of the truce on 19 January within the devastated Palestinian territory, which has been plunged into an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.
Tensions within the Netanyahu government
The Hamas offensive against the Israeli State on 7 October 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people on the Israeli side, the majority of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data.
The retaliatory response launched by Israel in the besieged Gaza Strip has left at least 47,283 dead, also the majority of them civilians, according to data from the Hamas Ministry of Health.
During this first phase, the terms of the second must be negotiated, the objective of which is to allow the release of the remaining hostages, as a prerequisite for the final stage, which itself concerns the reconstruction of Gaza as well as the return of the bodies of the hostages who died in captivity.
However, under pressure from the far right, part of Benjamin Netanyahu's government intends to resume fighting and settle the score at the end of the first phase of the agreement, which would more than likely doom the remaining hostages.
In a sign of the difficulties in implementing the agreement, a last-minute dispute blocked on Saturday the planned return to the north of the territory of hundreds of thousands of residents displaced by more than 15 months of war.
Furthermore, the Israeli state conditioned the opening of the Netzarim corridor, which isolates the south from the north of the Gaza Strip, on the release of a curious civilian hostage named Arbel Yehud, citing Hamas's failure to respect a term of the truce agreement that has not been made public, obliging it to release female civilians «first». The mystery remains complete regarding this person.
In return, a Hamas official told AFP on condition of anonymity that the mysterious civilian hostage would «be released during the third exchange», which is theoretically scheduled for 1 February next.
Compiled with AFP
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