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GAZA CEEASEFIRE

Trump proposes to 'clean out Gaza,' send Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan


Palestinians react as human remains are extracted from the rubble of buildings in a ruined neighborhood of the city of Rafah, in southern Gaza, on Jan. 22, 2025. (Credit: Bashar Taleb/AFP)

U.S. President Donald Trump has proposed moving the residents of the Gaza Strip to Egypt and Jordan as part of a peace plan aimed at “cleaning up” the Palestinian territory, where the truce between Israel and Hamas entered its second week on Sunday. The cease-fire, which came into effect on Jan. 19, has held and allowed the exchange on Saturday of four Israeli hostages for around 200 Palestinian prisoners.

But after 15 months of war triggered by the unprecedented Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, Trump compared the territory to a “demolition site” on Saturday night and said 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 around 1.5 million people, and we’re just cleaning it up. You know, over the centuries, this site has experienced many conflicts. And I don’t know, something has to happen,” Trump told reporters aboard the presidential plane Air Force One. “I would prefer to engage with certain Arab nations and build housing elsewhere where they might live in peace for once,” the president added. According to him, the relocation of Gaza residents could be “temporary or long-term.”

The vast majority of the 2.4 million residents of Gaza have been displaced, often repeatedly, since Oct. 7, 2023.

American bombs

Trump, who often boasted during his first presidential term that Israel “never had a better friend in the White House,” also confirmed having released a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs (907 kg) for his ally. The administration of former Democratic President Joe Biden had suspended the delivery of such air-dropped weapons, both precise and highly destructive, last year, arguing that they would cause a “great human tragedy.”

Trump had exerted intense pressure on both sides to conclude a cease-fire agreement before his inauguration on Jan. 20. As part of this agreement, Israeli soldiers Daniella Gilboa, Karina Ariev, Liri Albag and Naama Levy, aged 19 to 20, were released by Hamas on Saturday.

In the evening, relatives of hostages and their supporters protested in Tel Aviv demanding the return of the remaining hostages, 87 of whom were killed according to the army, out of a total of 251 abducted on Oct. 7, 2023.

33 hostages for 1,900 prisoners

In Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, a crowd waving Palestinian flags jubilantly welcomed some of the approximately 200 recently released Palestinians. Carried on the shoulders by residents, still dressed in prison uniforms, they reunited with their relatives amid hugs and tears.

An initial exchange of three Israeli hostages for 90 Palestinian prisoners took place on the first day of the truce on Jan. 19, in the devastated Palestinian territory plunged into a severe humanitarian crisis.

The first phase of the cease-fire agreement is expected to last six weeks and allow the release of a total of 33 hostages in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinian prisoners.

During this first phase, negotiations are to take place on the second phase, which aims to secure the release of the remaining hostages, followed by a final phase concerning the reconstruction of Gaza and the return of the bodies of hostages who died in captivity. However, under pressure from the far right, part of Benjamin Netanyahu's government wants to resume fighting at the end of the first phase of the agreement, which would likely condemn the last hostages.

An indicator of the difficulties in implementing the agreement, a last-minute dispute blocked the return on Saturday of hundreds of thousands of residents displaced by more than 15 months of war to the northern part of the territory. Israel conditioned the opening of the “Netzarim corridor,” which isolates the south from the north of the Gaza Strip, on the release of a civilian hostage, Arbel Yehud, citing non-compliance by Hamas with a term of the truce agreement not made public, obliging them to release “civilians first.” A Hamas leader told AFP on condition of anonymity that the civilian hostage would be “released on the occasion of the third exchange” scheduled for Feb. 1.

U.S. President Donald Trump has proposed moving the residents of the Gaza Strip to Egypt and Jordan as part of a peace plan aimed at “cleaning up” the Palestinian territory, where the truce between Israel and Hamas entered its second week on Sunday. The cease-fire, which came into effect on Jan. 19, has held and allowed the exchange on Saturday of four Israeli hostages for around 200...