Palestinians Reject Trump’s Call To Expel Them From Gaza
Palestinians have doubled down on their decision not be driven out of Gaza, after President Donald Trump called for transferring of Palestinians from teh region, so the United States could take over the devastated territory and rebuild it for others.
Rights groups said his comments were tantamount to a call for “ethnic cleansing” and forcible expulsion.
Saeed Abu Elaish’s wife, two of his daughters and two dozen others from his extended family were killed by Israeli airstrikes over the past 15 months. His house in northern Gaza was destroyed, but he says he won’t leave his home.
“We categorically reject and will resist any plans to deport and transfer us from our land,” he said from the Jabaliya refugee camp.
Trump’s call for depopulating Gaza has stunned Palestinians. Hundreds of thousands in the territory rushed to return home – even if destroyed – as soon as they could following the ceasefire reached last month between Israel and Hamas.
Though some experts speculated that Trump’s proposal might be a negotiating tactic, Palestinians across the region saw in it an effort to erase them from their homeland, a continuation of the expulsion and displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes in what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding its creation.
