Does Donald Trump plan to force Gaza’s population to neighbouring states?

The suggestion that Gaza should be “cleaned out,” as suggested by US President Donald Trump, and the relocation of its 2.3 million pre-war population to the two neighboring nations has been rejected by Egypt and Jordan.

Trump, who first brought up the idea on Sunday, repeated it on Monday as he addressed a question about whether the Gazans would experience immediate or long-term resentment. Trump once more stated that he wanted to “get Palestinians from Gaza] living in a place without repression, revolution, and violence.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff had a discussion about the proposal, according to Israeli media.

According to reports from Israeli public radio, Witkoff pressed Netanyahu to remove any remaining political obstacles that might block the three-pronged ceasefire agreement reached earlier this month between Israel and Hamas. Additionally, they discussed the suggestion that Egypt and Jordan relocate Gaza’s population.

Senior officials later told Channel 13 news that they had “got the impression that the Americans are serious about this idea, that it’s not just talk,” despite no official details of the meeting.

Trump has stated his desire to alter the geography of the world before in this context.

He has suggested that the US should annexe the territory of Greenland, bring the Panama Canal back under US control, and rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.

However, after 15 months of relentless aerial bombardment and ground invasions by Israel, resulting in the killing of some 47, 354 people, the injuring of 111, 563 and the destruction of approximately 60 percent of all housing in the enclave, it is in Gaza where Trump’s latest idea stands to have the greatest humanitarian impact.

What has been the response to Trump’s idea for Gaza?

Almost everyone outside Israel, including Egypt, Jordan, the UN and Palestinian leaders, has rejected the idea.

Egypt

On Wednesday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi told a news conference, “Regarding what is being said about the displacement of Palestinians, it can never be tolerated or allowed because of its impact on Egyptian national security”.

“The deportation or displacement of the Palestinian people is an injustice in which we cannot participate”, he told reporters.

The Egyptian State Information Service also flagged the US president’s claims that he had spoken with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as false.

Jordan

King Abdullah II, along with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, and European Council President Antonio Costa, also spoke out against the plan in Brussels.

Palestinian leadership

The idea was also rejected by Palestinian leaders.

Mahmoud Abbas, the nominal leader of the Palestinian Authority, condemned “any projects” intended to displace the people of Gaza outside of the enclave, while Hamas leaders, who oversee Gaza, told news agency AFP that Palestinians would “foil such projects”, as they have done to similar plans “for displacement and alternative homelands over the decades”.

United Nations

The UN, which continues to support the two-state solution outlined in the 1990 Oslo Accords, also responded strongly to the idea of moving Palestinians to neighboring states.

During a news conference on Monday, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarri also rejected Trump’s plan, telling reporters, “We would be against any plan that would lead to the forced displacement of people, or would lead to any type of ethnic cleansing”.

Other countries

In addition to those directly involved, a number of other states have also been critical of Trump’s plan to relocate Gaza’s population, including Germany, whose leader, Olaf Scholtz, dismissed the suggestion as “unacceptable”.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot also dismissed the idea, telling France’s parliament on Tuesday that the US president’s suggestion was “absolutely unacceptable”.

Spain, one of the two EU nations that recognizes the state of Palestine, also denounced the idea, with Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares telling EuroNews that “Gaza belongs to the Palestinians and the people living in Gaza.”

The Arab League issued a statement on Monday saying that “ethnic cleansing” can only be called ethnic cleansing, and it also made a strong opposition to the plan.

Who backs Trump’s plan to annex Palestinians into neighboring states?

Many right-wing Israelis.

Since the first illegal Israeli settlements were erected in Gaza in 2005, a sizable portion of Israelis have been supportive of the idea of replacing Palestinians there with Israelis.

Following the 1, 139-person death bombing by Hamas-led attack from Gaza in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, it gained new relevance in the eyes of many.

A conference, held in Jerusalem in January 2024 and titled Settlement Brings Security, drew 12 cabinet ministers, including the ultra-Zionist minister of finance, Bezalel Smotrich, and the far-right former minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir. Both parties participated in discussions about the “voluntary” migration of Palestinians from Gaza and their subsequent Israeli resettlement.

Along with other right-wing ministers, both Ben-Gvir and Smotrich welcomed Trump’s suggestion of moving Palestinians to neighbouring states this week. According to Spottrich, who was speaking to reporters on Monday, he was already creating an “operational plan” to implement Trump’s ideas.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to comment publicly on Trump’s suggestion. Despite the numerous accusations of war crimes and genocide against the state over its conflict with Gaza, many observers have taken issue with his recent invitation to the White House, which is the first international leader to be asked.

Is Trump’s suggestion even legal?

No.

According to Michael Becker, a professor of international human rights law at Trinity College in Dublin and former member of the International Court of Justice, “the proposal to relocate Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring states smacks of forced displacement, which would violate international humanitarian law.”

Becker added that if Trump’s suggestion was followed, it could lead to Israel’s subsequent annexation of Gaza, which Becker claimed would be “a violation of the bedrock prohibition of the acquisition of territory by force.”

According to Becker, “international courts have also determined that a population transfer constitutes forced displacement depends on whether the recipient has a legitimate choice,” This implies that even if some Palestinians appear to be agreeing to relocate, their displacement won’t always be legal.

Does that prevent any attempt to stop Palestinians from being enacted?

Probably not.

The US remains the world’s most powerful state, with many within the international community dependent upon it for trade and, in some cases, defence.

Even the UN, which has criticised Trump’s comments, receives 22 percent of its annual budget – not including the cost of peacekeeping – from Washington.

There is no mechanism to stop the US from breaking international law, according to Leila Alieva of the Oxford School for Global and Area Studies, citing the failure of the UN and the International Criminal Court (ICC) to halt Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Source: Aljazeera