Trump still pushing for expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza
Senior Trump administration officials have taken questions from reporters a short while ago.
Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane said the officials were asked if Trump’s idea to move Palestinians out of Gaza into Egypt and Jordan was a real proposal.
The officials said Trump “believes Gaza is a ‘demolition zone’ that will take 10 to 15 years to rebuild”, Culhane said.
As a result, the administration is trying to present Trump’s proposal to “clean out” Gaza – which has been slammed by rights advocates as a push for ethnic cleansing – as something it is doing “for the Palestinians”, she said.
The administration is arguing “that it wouldn’t be humane for Palestinians to have to live in those conditions during the 10 to 15 years that they expect it will take to rebuild, citing the lack of infrastructure, diseases and unexploded ordnances”, Culhane reported.
“So that’s how they’re going to try and phrase this very controversial suggestion.”
US ‘showing contempt for int’l justice’ by hosting Netanyahu: Amnesty
Amnesty International says the US “has a clear obligation” under the Geneva Conventions “to search for & try or extradite persons accused of having committed or ordered the commission of war crimes”.
“There must be no ‘safe haven’ for individuals alleged to have committed war crimes & crimes against humanity,” the rights group said in a social media thread.
As we reported earlier, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu in November of last year, accusing the Israeli prime minister of “crimes against humanity and war crimes”.
Amnesty International added that Washington “has been consistently provided with evidence that US-origin weapons contributed to war crimes, including those that established the evidence that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza”.
“Complying with ICC arrest warrants & pursuing accountability in domestic courts is crucial to bring to justice those responsible for Israel’s genocide in Gaza and the continued dispossession and oppression of Palestinians under Israel’s unlawful occupation and system of apartheid,” it said.
The US doesn't even comply with their own laws, international law is only for those the US doesn't like.
US ‘will remain complicit in Israel’s atrocities in Gaza’ if arms sales persist: HRW
Ahead of Trump’s talks with Netanyahu, Human Rights Watch has urged the US to cut off military assistance to Israel.
“If President Trump wants to break with the Biden administration’s complicity in the Israeli government’s atrocities in Gaza, he should immediately suspend arms transfers to Israel,” said Bruno Stagno, HRW’s chief advocacy officer.
“Trump said the hostilities in Gaza were ‘not our war’ but ‘their war,’ but unless the US ends its military support, Gaza will also be Trump’s war.”
The US provides at least $3.8bn in military aid to Israel annually. Former President Joe Biden’s administration authorised an additional $17.9bn amid the Gaza war, researchers at Brown University found.
Essay Pro