The Albany Gazette - Palestinians slam Trump idea of 'cleaning out' Gaza

Meanwhile, Palestinian sources said a dispute linked to hostage-prisoner swaps under the Israel-Hamas truce deal may be nearing a solution that could possibly allow vast crowds of Palestinians jammed a coastal road return to northern Gaza.

The latest swap saw four Israeli women hostages, all soldiers, and 200 Palestinian prisoners released on Saturday to joyful scenes, in the second such exchange during the fragile truce entering its second week.

After 15 months of war, Trump said Gaza had become a "demolition site", adding he had spoken to Jordan's King Abdullah II about moving Palestinians out of the territory.

"I'd like Egypt to take people. And I'd like Jordan to take people," Trump told reporters, adding he expected to talk to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said that "our rejection of the displacement of Palestinians is firm and will not change. Jordan is for Jordanians and Palestine is for Palestinians."

Most Gazans are Palestinian refugees or their descendants. Jordan is already home to around 2.3 million registered Palestinian refugees, according to the United Nations.

For Palestinians, any attempt to move them from Gaza would evoke dark memories of what the Arab world calls the "Nakba" or catastrophe -- the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel's creation in 1948.

"We say to Trump and the whole world: we will not leave Palestine or Gaza, no matter what happens," said displaced Gaza resident Rashad al-Naji.

Egypt has previously warned against any "forced displacement" of Palestinians from Gaza into the Sinai desert, which Sisi said could jeopardise the peace treaty Egypt signed with Israel in 1979.

"You're talking about probably a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing," Trump said of Gaza, whose population is about 2.4 million.

Moving Gaza's inhabitants could be done "temporarily or could be long term", he added.

- 'Deplorable' -

Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas's political bureau, told AFP that Palestinians would "foil such projects", as they have done to similar plans "for displacement and alternative homelands over the decades".

Islamic Jihad, which has fought alongside Hamas in Gaza, called Trump's idea "deplorable" and said it encouraged "war crimes and crimes against humanity by forcing our people to leave their land".

President Abbas "expressed strong rejection and condemnation of any projects" aimed at displacing Palestinians from Gaza, a statement from his office said.

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who opposed the truce deal and has voiced support for re-establishing Israeli settlements in Gaza, said Trump's suggestion of "helping them find other places to start a better life is a great idea".

Almost all Gazans have been displaced by the war that began after Hamas's attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

The United Nations says close to 70 percent of the territory's buildings are damaged or destroyed.

On Sunday, cars and carts loaded with belongings jammed a road near the Netzarim Corridor that Israel has blocked, preventing the expected return of hundreds of thousands of people to northern Gaza.

Israel announced on Saturday it would prevent Palestinians' passage until the release of Arbel Yehud, a civilian woman hostage who Netanyahu's office said "was supposed to be released".

- Waiting to enter -

On Sunday, Netanyahu's office said that by not releasing her on Saturday and not providing a "detailed list of all hostages' statuses", Hamas had committed truce violations.

Hamas later said that blocking returns to the north also amounted to a truce violation, adding it had provided "all the necessary guarantees" for Yehud's release.

Two Palestinian sources later told AFP Yehud will be handed over within days.

"The crisis has been resolved," said a Palestinian source familiar with the issue.

Israel has yet to comment.

During the first phase of the Gaza truce, 33 hostages should be freed in staggered releases over six weeks in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

The truce has brought a surge of food, fuel medicines and other aid into rubble-strewn Gaza, but the UN says "the humanitarian situation remains dire".

Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, 87 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed at least 47,306 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.

The Lebanese health ministry said Israeli troops killed nearly two dozen people on Sunday as hundreds of residents tried to return to their homes in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli army said soldiers "fired warning shots" against "suspects were identified approaching the troops".

burs/imm/ami

(Y.Harris--TAG)