Hamas ‘ready’ for talks on phase two of Gaza ceasefire: Report

Two Hamas officials speaking on condition of anonymity are being quoted by AFP expressing the group’s readiness to start discussions on the second phase of the ceasefire in Gaza.

“Hamas has informed the mediators during ongoing communications and meetings held with Egyptian mediators last week in Cairo that we are ready to start the negotiations for the second phase,” one official said.

“We are waiting for the mediators to initiate the next round of negotiations,” the other said.

Netanyahu blows past ceasefire talks deadline to confer with Trump

A deadline to begin talks on extending Gaza’s ceasefire arrived Monday with the Israeli prime minister in Washington, silence from his office about when a negotiating team might engage with Hamas, and considerable uncertainty about what the next stage of the fragile truce will look like.

The ceasefire, in place for just over two weeks, is set to expire on March 1. Under the terms of the deal, talks on the next phase are supposed to begin no later than Monday.

But the Israeli government has yet to publicly unveil a negotiating team for the talks, let alone send them to Qatar or Egypt, where Hamas is sending a delegation this week. Hamas has not publicly commented on Monday’s deadline.

Delay in start of talks about extending ceasefire ‘terrifying’

Ofer Cassif, a member of the Israeli parliament representing the Hadash party, says the apparent delay in the start of the talks about the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire is “a terrifying sign”.

“I’ve been saying since day one that Netanyahu and the thugs around him in the coalition and the government are not really interested in a ceasefire or saving the Israeli hostages – let alone saving the lives of thousands of Palestinians,” he told Al Jazeera from West Jerusalem.

“They are interested in two things: Netanyahu himself is interested, as usual, in his own good. That’s it. He wants to stay in power in order to stay out of prison. That’s the only thing he cares about, and it doesn’t matter for him if it comes at the expense of the lives of thousands and thousands of people, Palestinians and Israelis alike,” Cassif argued.

“And the thugs around him in the coalition, mainly those who are part of the fanatic, fascist parties, they are interested in using the human blood as a carpet for the Messiah. They truly believe that the continuation of the genocide in Gaza and more violence in the West Bank – as we saw just in the last few days – is part of their dream, which is in fact a nightmare. They believe that will bring the Messiah and the Third Temple, etc, and all this hogwash.

“They don’t care about human lives.”

Occupied West Bank refugee camps ‘in serious threat of total destruction’

We have some more lines from the interview with Knesset member Ofer Cassif:

“We saw in the last few days that both the refugee camp in Jenin and the refugee camp in Tulkarem are under a serious threat of total destruction and yet again another expulsion of Palestinian people from there,” he told Al Jazeera, saying this has nothing to do with security.

“I’m also afraid that this has been done on purpose by the Israeli government in order to foil the ceasefire in Gaza. That’s the reason I’m so worried,” Cassif added, appealing to countries in the region to not “leave behind your brothers and sisters in Palestine”.

“Don’t leave the Palestinians who’ve been butchered for more than one year by the Israeli government. That should have been stopped months ago,” he said. “That’s in the interest of everybody who is involved – obviously the Palestinians but also the Israelis.”

Jenin mayor likens Israeli military operation to war in Gaza

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/03/middleeast/jenin-mayor-israeli-military-operation-intl/index.html

The mayor of Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, told CNN on Monday that the Israeli assault on the Jenin Refugee Camp was akin to the war in Gaza, saying it had destroyed 120 buildings and displaced 15,000 people.

“What has been happening in Jenin city and the refugee camp over the past two weeks is similar to that of Gaza but on a smaller scale,” Mohammad Jarrar said Monday. Hundreds of residential units make up the 120 destroyed buildings, he said, noting that the destruction had impacted thousands of families.

Jarrar described scenes of devastation amid a shortage of food, water and medication as services have been disrupted because of the operation. He added that displacement is expected to only further increase.


_{Israeli military members walk during an Israeli army operation in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, February 3}

Israel launched its operation two days after the first stage of the Gaza ceasefire began, dubbing it “Operation Iron Wall.”

The Israeli military said the operation was aimed at eliminating “terrorists and terror infrastructure” and “ensuring that terrorism does not return to the camp after the operation is over – the first lesson from the method of repeated raids in Gaza.”

More than 40 Palestinians have been killed across the West Bank by the Israeli military since the operation was launched, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which said that 25 of those people were from Jenin. Dozens more have been injured, the ministry said.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right nationalist who opposes the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, said in a January statement that security in the West Bank had been added to the country’s “war goals.”

Smotrich publicly toyed with quitting the Israeli government when the Gaza ceasefire was announced, but decided to stay in the cabinet after saying he had received assurances from Netanyahu on his commitment to continue Israel’s military operations in the West Bank and Gaza.

_{Smoke rises following an explosion detonated by the Israeli army, which said it was destroying buildings used by Palestinian militants in the Jenin Refugee Camp in the occupied West Bank on Sunday.}

Jarrar told CNN that the military operation on Jenin was “political,” noting the desire of some in Israeli government to annex the West Bank and encourage Palestinians to emigrate from the territory.

The mayor said that schools might be opened to take in displaced people, as was seen in Gaza over the 15-month-long war.

“Today the (Jenin) camp is uninhabitable and would require major reconstruction efforts for it to stand on its feet,” he said, adding that the “crisis is huge,” and that alternative housing for the displaced might be needed for around six months.

Last week, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Israeli troops would remain in the Jenin camp once their current operation is complete – a significant change in Israeli policy.

Jenin’s mayor told CNN that the minister’s statement is “worrying” and raises “many questions about the future of the West Bank, not just Jenin and its camp.”

Meanwhile, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), said in a statement Monday that “Jenin camp has been rendered a ghost town.”

“Operations conducted both by Israeli and Palestinian security forces have led to the forced displacement of thousands of camp residents, many of whom will now have nowhere to return to. The basics of life are gone,” it said.

“Today’s shocking scenes in the West Bank undermine the fragile ceasefire reached in Gaza, and risk a new escalation,” the UNRWA statement added.

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.

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are meeting on Tuesday.

The US will remain complicit in Israel’s atrocities in Gaza so long as it continues to provide Israel with arms. Read more: https://t.co/QLXnU0i25W pic.twitter.com/O22LN6P2x6

— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) February 4, 2025

Doctor sounds alarm about ‘complete breakdown’ of Gaza’s medical system

We’ve spoken to Mohammed Tahir, a trauma and nerve surgeon at FAJR Scientific who returned to London from Gaza on Saturday and who has been there on a number of medical missions, about the medical needs in the territory.

He said the patients that need to urgently be evacuated include those who have been directly affected by the war, suffering from bullet and shrapnel wounds, as well as more chronic cases, such as cancer patients.

“Those patients will die unless they are allowed to be evacuated,” Tahir warned, noting that there is a “complete breakdown” of the healthcare system and a lack of appropriate tools and diagnostics.

At the same time, Tahir said, there is a need to redevelop Gaza’s medical system in order to treat the hundreds of thousands of people requiring treatment.

“We need to rebuild the local system, allow the import of critical equipment and expertise, and at the same time allow those with the most urgent needs evacuated so that they have their healthcare needs addressed,” he added.

Tahir also said that from the moment the ceasefire took effect on January 19 until February 2, when he left Gaza, there was “no appreciable change in terms of medical care” as the urgent healthcare needs had not been met.


Israeli system blocks life-saving medical evacuations out of Gaza: Physician

Up to 14,000 people in Gaza currently require medical evacuation that will save their lives, said James Smith, a London-based emergency physician who has worked in Gaza.

“A substantial proportion of those patients could have been treated inside Gaza were it not for the fact that the Israeli occupation forces have systematically destroyed and dismantled the health system in Gaza. We’re talking about children with congenital heart defects and other complex multiorgan issues, children with cancer and adults as well,” he told Al Jazeera.

The doctor said at the current rate that Israel is permitting evacuations, it would take at least 378 days to evacuate everyone requiring treatment abroad.

“I myself have treated children and adults in Gaza who died as a result of their medical and surgical conditions who otherwise could have been saved if we could have evacuated them outside of Gaza in a timely fashion,” Smith said.

“This is a most bureaucratically perverse system, and the situation was also similar prior to October 7, 2023. These are the conditions of occupation that Israel has imposed on people living in Gaza and occupied Palestine.”

Israeli army destroys sewage plant, more infrastructure in south Lebanon

Israeli forces have carried out a “large-scale demolition operation” in a sewage treatment plant located in the Marjayoun plains towards Kfar Kila, near the border with Israel, according to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA).

Also in Marjayoun, Israeli forces have been reportedly bulldozing trees and agricultural lands, as well as burning homes in the eastern side of the town of Hula.

Meanwhile, Israeli fighter jets have been carrying out mock raids in the skies of Nabatieh and Iqlim Tuffah in southern Lebanon at medium altitude, while drones fired two sound bombs in the skies of the two of al-Jabeen.

The Lebanese army has begun deploying in the town of Taybeh, according to NNA, which said the army will also be detonating unexploded ordnance in the Qalaa fields in Marjayoun and in the Akka area.

Israel arrested at least 380 Palestinians since Gaza ceasefire: NGO

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Club has issued a statement saying that the Israeli army has arrested at least 380 Palestinians – mostly young men – in the occupied West Bank since the ceasefire in Gaza came into effect on January 19.

The figure includes those who were arrested and kept in detention, as well as those who were later released, the group added.

UNRWA says its financial health ‘very bad’

We have some lines from a press briefing by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, spokeswoman Juliette Touma said UNRWA expected its financial situation to worsen, even before an expected decision by Trump to extend a funding ban on it.

“When and if the executive order is issued, we will be able to comment on that. Having said that, the financial health of UNRWA is very, very bad, and it got worse over the past few months and is expected to continue to worsen,” Touma said.

Commenting on the Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank, Touma warned that the Jenin refugee camp is heading in a “catastrophic direction”.

Large parts of the camp had been “destroyed in a series of detonations by the Israeli forces”, she said.

Trump and Netanyahu sit down in White House

The two leaders are sitting in front of a fire at the White House, taking questions from the media.

A reporter asked Trump if he felt he should earn the Nobel Peace Prize if the ceasefire holds and the Israeli captives in Gaza are released.

“I deserve it, but they will never give it to me,” Trump replied.

Trump reiterates that Jordan and Egypt must take Palestinians

Trump repeated his claim that Gaza is a “demolition zone” and that Palestinians should be relocated to countries such as Egypt and Jordan.

“I think Jordan and Egypt — they say they’re not going to accept, but I say they will. But I think other countries will accept also,” he said.

“If you look at Gaza, there’s hardly a building standing, and the ones that are standing are going to collapse. You can’t live in Gaza right now. You need another location, and I think it should be a location that’s going to make people happy. You look over the decades, it’s all death in Gaza. This has been happening for years, it’s all death.”

Trump explained he would like to “settle people permanently” in “a beautiful area” outside of Gaza where they can “be happy”.

By and large, Palestinians have firmly rejected being pushed out of Gaza and resettled elsewhere.


Trump says Saudi Arabia not demanding Palestinian state for Israel deal

The US president answers with a definitive “no” when asked whether Saudi Arabia is demanding the establishment of a Palestinian state to forge formal ties with Israel.

Trump’s assertion contradicts numerous official Saudi Arabian statements over the past years, stressing the kingdom’s commitment to the Arab Peace Initiative, which premises diplomatic recognition of Israel on the condition that a Palestinian state be established.

Praising Netanyahu, Trump says ‘a deal can get done’

Speaking about negotiations on the next phase of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, Trump has told reporters: “Everyone’s demanding one thing. You know what that is? Peace.”

Turning to Netanyahu who was sitting beside him, Trump said, “And he wants peace also.”

“We’re dealing with a very complex group of people, situation and people, but we have the right man,” Trump added.

“We have the right leader of Israel. He’s done a great job, and we’ve been friends for a long time.”

Netanyahu reiterates his aim to meet all ‘war goals’ in Gaza

When asked by a journalist about his commitment to bringing home Israeli captives held by Hamas, the Israeli prime minister reiterated that is one of several aims he hopes to achieve.

“I support getting all the hostages out and meeting all our war goals,” he said.

“That includes destroying Hamas’s military and governing capabilities and making sure that Gaza never poses a threat to Israel.”

Netanyahu met with evangelical leaders in Washington, DC

Since arriving in Washington, DC, on Sunday, Netanyahu has had a number of other meetings in the capital, including with evangelical Christian leaders.

Israel’s UN envoy Danny Danon said in a post on social media that Netanyahu met on Monday with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Trump’s nominee for US ambassador to Israel.

In the past, Huckabee has said, “There is really no such thing as a Palestinian,” citing the Christian bible as a justification.

Many of Israel’s staunchest supporters in the US are evangelicals, in part because some share the belief that biblical prophecies link modern-day wars in Israel to the second coming of Jesus Christ.

Meanwhile, a schedule of Netanyahu’s visit did not appear to include American Jewish leaders, with whom Netanyahu has “had a rockier relationship” over the years, according to The Times of Israel.

_{Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee says he has been to Israel over 100 times}

UN ambassador says Palestinians want to return to family’s original homes

Palestinian UN representative Riyad Mansour has said that, instead of being expelled from Gaza into nearby countries, the enclave’s residents should be able to return to their family’s original homes in what is today Israel.

Much of Gaza’s population are descendants of Palestinians who lived in towns and cities that were ethnically cleansed during Israel’s founding and barred from returning home.

“For those who want to send the Palestinian people to a ‘nice place’, allow them to go back to their original homes in what is now Israel,” said Mansour. “The Palestinian people want to rebuild Gaza because this is where we belong,” he added.

“For those who want to send the Palestinian people to a ‘nice place’, allow them to go back to their original homes in what is now Israel…the Palestinian people want to rebuild Gaza because this is where we belong.” pic.twitter.com/T8i7ZwDhLQ

— State of Palestine (@Palestine_UN) February 4, 2025

Protesters chant ‘Free Palestine’ outside of White House

_{A crowd of pro-Palestine demonstrators gather outside of the White House during a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington DC on February 4}

Israeli settlers hoping to expand their reach further under Trump

Israel’s population of settlers are hopeful that they will be able to extend their control over the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem during Trump’s second term.

“I think you’re going to see an explosion of the construction here,” Baruch Gordon, the director of a group that publishes data on the number of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, told The Associated Press news agency.

“This is our biblical heartland,” he added.

For decades, Israeli settlers have built illegal communities on land confiscated from Palestinians in defiance of international law and carried out violent attacks and other forms of harassment.

Several prominent rights groups have accused Israel of committing the crime of apartheid against Palestinians.

What Donald Trump said about his plans to ‘take over’ Gaza

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/5/what-donald-trump-said-about-his-plans-to-take-over-gaza

President Donald Trump has said the United States will “take over” and “own” Gaza after an ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the besieged enclave under an extraordinary plan that he claimed could turn the enclave into “the Riviera of the Middle East”.

Trump’s statement on his Gaza plans came while he was addressing a news conference at the White House with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Here’s what he told reporters:


“Today I’m delighted to welcome Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu back to the White House. It’s a wonderful feeling and a wonderful event. We had fantastic talks, and thank you very much, with your staff.

“I want to say it’s an honour to have you with us. Over the past four years, the US and the Israeli alliance has been tested more than any time in history, but the bonds of friendship and affection between the American and Israeli people have endured for generations and they are absolutely unbreakable.

“I’m confident that, under our leadership, the cherished alliance between our two countries will soon be stronger than ever. We had a great relationship. We had great victories together four years ago, not so many victories over the past four years, however. In my first term, prime minister and I forged a tremendously successful partnership that brought peace and stability to the Middle East like it hadn’t seen in decades.


“Together, we defeated ISIS [ISIL], we ended the disastrous Iran nuclear deal, one of the worst deals ever made, and imposed the toughest ever sanctions on the Iranian regime. We starved Hamas and Iran’s other terrorist proxies, and we starved them like they had never seen before, resources and support disappeared for them.

“I recognised Israel’s capital, opened the American embassy in Jerusalem and got it built. We got it built. It’s beautiful, all Jerusalem stone right from nearby and it was – it’s something that’s very special.

“And recognised Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, something that they talked about for 70 years and they weren’t able to get it. And I got it. And with the historic Abraham Accords, something that was really an achievement that was, I think, going to become more and more important because we achieved the most significant Middle East peace agreements in half a century.

“And I really believe that many countries will soon be joining this amazing peace and economic development transaction. It really is a big economic development transaction. I think we’re going to have a lot of people signing up very quickly. Unfortunately, for four years, nobody signed up. Nobody did anything for four years except in the negative.


“Unfortunately, the weakness and incompetence of those past four years, the grave damage around the globe that was done, including in the Middle East, grave damage all over the globe. The horrors of October 7th would never have happened if I were president, the Ukraine and Russia disaster would never have happened if I were president.

(They're a result of your previous actions, including the Ukraine invasion...)

“Over the past 16 months, Israel has endured a sustained aggressive and murderous assault on every front, but they fought back bravely. You see that and you know that. What we have witnessed is an all-out attack on the very existence of a Jewish state in the Jewish homeland. The Israelis have stood strong and united in the face of an enemy that has kidnapped, tortured, raped and slaughtered innocent men, women, children and even little babies.

“I want to salute the Israeli people for meeting this trial with courage and determination and unflinching resolve. They have been strong. In our meetings today, the prime minister and I focused on the future, discussing how we can work together to ensure Hamas is eliminated and ultimately restore peace to a very troubled region.

“It’s been troubled, but what has happened in the last four years has not been good.


“I also strongly believe that the Gaza Strip, which has been a symbol of death and destruction for so many decades and so bad for the people anywhere near it, and especially those who live there and frankly who’s been really very unlucky. It’s been very unlucky. It’s been an unlucky place for a long time.

“Being in its presence just has not been good and it should not go through a process of rebuilding and occupation by the same people that have really stood there and fought for it and lived there and died there and lived a miserable existence there. Instead, we should go to other countries of interest with humanitarian hearts, and there are many of them that want to do this and build various domains that will ultimately be occupied by the 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza, ending the death and destruction and frankly bad luck.

“This can be paid for by neighbouring countries of great wealth. It could be one, two, three, four, five, seven, eight, 12. It could be numerous sites, or it could be one large site. But the people will be able to live in comfort and peace and we’ll make sure something really spectacular is done.

“They’re going to have peace. They’re not going to be shot at and killed and destroyed like this civilisation of wonderful people has had to endure. The only reason the Palestinians want to go back to Gaza is they have no alternative. It’s right now a demolition site. This is just a demolition site. Virtually every building is down.

“They’re living under fallen concrete that’s very dangerous and very precarious. They instead can occupy all of a beautiful area with homes and safety and they can live out their lives in peace and harmony instead of having to go back and do it again.


“The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out. Create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area … do a real job, do something different.

“Just can’t go back. If you go back, it’s going to end up the same way it has for 100 years. I’m hopeful that this ceasefire could be the beginning of a larger and more enduring peace that will end the bloodshed and killing once and for all. With the same goal in mind, my administration has been moving quickly to restore trust in the alliance and rebuild American strength throughout the region and we’ve really done that.

“I ended the last administration’s de facto arms embargo on over $1bn, in military assistance for Israel. And I’m also pleased to announce that this afternoon, the United States withdrew from the anti-Semitic UN Human Rights Council and ended all of the support for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which funnelled money to Hamas, and which was very disloyal to humanity.”

Unbelievable, worse than I could imagine after 35 years of following this conflict.

Trump’s Gaza displacement push ‘received well’ in Israel

The Israeli public, as well as the Israeli government, is receiving this [Trump’s calls to displace Palestinians from Gaza] well. In fact, a survey that was done two days ago, published in Israeli media, found that 80 percent of respondents supported removing – forcibly displacing – Gaza’s population outside of its land.

And then, you have the Israeli government – members of Netanyahu’s coalition and members of the opposition – saying that this is a great idea, that it’s the dawn of a new day.

It’s also worth mentioning comments made by Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff who played an integral part in the ceasefire negotiations. He said Palestinians’ right to a better life shouldn’t necessarily be tied to the land itself.

But if you know anything about the Middle East, if you know anything about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, you’ll know that it’s all tied to the land and Israeli occupation.

Still, these ideas are being received well in Israel, members of whose government have been calling for this since the beginning of the war. They used to use the term “voluntary migration” and it’s become more aggressive now with the forced displacement of the Palestinian people.

_{Palestinians stand next to a fire beside a destroyed house in an area littered with rubble from buildings destroyed during the Israeli army’s ground and air offensive in Gaza City}

Israeli minister suggests Palestinians from Gaza would leave for work abroad

Minister Ze’ev Elkin is quoted by Israel’s public broadcaster Kan as saying he believes Palestinians from Gaza would agree to relocate if they were presented with a suitable “rehabilitation plan somewhere else in the world”.

“There is quite a demand for labour,” Elkin added, hinting that Palestinians would have better job opportunities outside of the enclave.

As we’ve reported, Egypt and Jordan have repeatedly ruled out Trump’s calls for them to take in Palestinians from Gaza, saying they will not contribute to “displacement”.

Elkin, however, suggested the US could use its influence to strong-arm the Arab states into following his plan. “The US has leverage over Jordan and Egypt, which receives the largest aid in the world after us,” said Elkin, who is in charge of the rehabilitation and rebuilding of northern Israel after Israel’s conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

‘Beautiful relationship’: Israel’s Ben-Gvir ecstatic about Trump’s Gaza comments

Far-right Israeli politician Itamar Ben-Gvir, who resigned as Netanyahu’s national security minister last month in objection to the Gaza ceasefire deal, is happy about the US president’s comments as he eyes a comeback.

“Donald, this looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” he wrote in a rare English post on X after the president said the US wants to “own” the enclave and develop it.

In a separate post in Hebrew, Ben-Gvir said Trump is now touting a plan he has been proudly backing to “encourage migration” of Palestinians from Gaza.

“When I said time and time again during the war that this was the solution to Gaza, they mocked me. Now it is clear: this is the only solution, this is the strategy for the ‘day after’. I call on the prime minister to announce adoption of the plan as soon as possible and to begin immediate practical progress,” Ben-Gvir said.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Ben-Gvir has said the likelihood of his return to the Netanyahu coalition has increased.

 
Israel’s far-right politicians ‘on a high’ as Trump fleshes out their dreams

What Trump read from his papers was tailored to the extreme right-wing representatives in the Israeli government, according to Menachem Klein, professor of political science at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.

“It’s not out of the blue, this is their wish and their dream not only to end the Hamas regime in Gaza, but to implement an ethnic cleansing plan and expand their own population,” he told Al Jazeera from West Jerusalem.

Trump’s comment that he may support annexation of the occupied West Bank because Israeli territory is “too small” signals the agenda of right-wing factions in Israel as well, the professor said.

“The key question is whether Saudi Arabia will condition its deal with the US and normalisation with Israel to abandoning this plan, not just saying they support Palestinians’ right to self-determination.”

The Israeli far-right coalition is “on a high” and sees a dramatic change in their situation, in particular in light of their failure to achieve their war goals of destroying Hamas and getting all captives out of Gaza, Klein added.

“The Israeli centre is silent. They do not say this is against humanitarian law, a crime, or something they reject. They are very cautious. The Israeli public discourse previously normalised genocide in Gaza, and now, it is normalising ethnic cleansing. There’s no cry by the so-called Israeli opposition against this,” he said.

Israel’s top diplomat frames Trump’s ethnic cleansing plan for Gaza as ‘voluntary migration’

“As long as immigration is undertaken voluntarily and as long as there is a country that is willing to accept that person, can anyone say that this is immoral?” Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has said in comments carried by Israel’s Arutz Sheva media group.

“It seems that it is moral for every nation and for every person, unless he is Palestinian?” he added.

Earlier, Trump proclaimed that “the only reason the Palestinians want to go back to Gaza is they have no alternative” and claimed they would be better off elsewhere.

As we’ve reported, his plan prompted global condemnation.

Trump makes ‘vulgar’ imperialist remarks instead of working on political settlement in Gaza

Tamer Qarmout, an associate professor in public policy at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, says that Trump’s comments about the US taking over Gaza are “a very sick joke at this point in time”.

“When you see this genocidal war and the impacts it has left on the Palestinian people, you would assume at this moment of the ceasefire the focus would be on sustaining the ceasefire, ending the war and creating a political path for a political settlement to preserve Palestinians’ dignity and rights,” he said.

Instead, “we see this warmongering and this new, vulgar and inhumane imperialism, disregard of the international law, everything we were brought up believing in”, Qarmout added.

He also said that Trump’s remarks should be taken seriously, but “he has a history of threatening and bullying around and proposing bad, crazy ideas but they failed in many contexts”.

“Trump proposed a deal of the century [to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during his first term in office], which did not see the light,” Qarmout said.

Ex-Irish diplomat says Trump’s Gaza remarks show ‘moral vacuum’ in the White House

Former Irish diplomat Bobby McDonough has told Al Jazeera that Trump’s comments reveal a “moral vacuum” in the White House and warned against dismissing them as mere rhetoric.

McDonough stressed Ireland’s support for a two-state solution, adding that Israel has “zero legal, moral, historical, biblical rights” to Palestinian land.

He said Trump’s stance harms US global standing and efforts to normalise Israel-Arab ties, and he hoped it would not disrupt ceasefire talks.

Senior US administration members held ‘their heads in their hands’ during Trump’s announcement

The White House did not seem to care about the backlash, because not only did it not prepare international leaders for this announcement, but, in fact, we are hearing that members of the administration and even some cabinet members, as well as senior members of the Capitol Hill, did not know about this announcement in advance.

In fact, there were members who were seated in the East Room of the White House, listening to this for the first time in real-time, putting their heads in their hands in shock and amazement as they heard this proposal being revealed.

This is the most radical proposal that has been put forward since George W Bush invaded Iraq in 2003. We know that Palestinians don’t want to leave. We know that Saudi Arabia, a top US ally, is opposed to this.

When it comes to the US president saying he will not rule out using US troops to implement this plan, this has been called “problematic” to “absurd” by senior members of both the Republicans and the Democrats on Capitol Hill.

‘We are going nowhere’: Gaza residents react to Trump’s plan

As condemnations flood in over Trump’s proposal to push Palestinians out of Gaza and have the US take control, Palestinians in the enclave are responding with defiance.

“We will not leave our areas, we will not allow a second Nakba,” Um Tamer, a 65-year-old mother of six in Gaza City, told the Reuters news agency. “We have brought our kids up teaching them that they can’t leave their home and they can’t allow a second Nakba.”

“[Trump] is crazy,” she added. “We didn’t leave Gaza under the bombardment and the starvation, how does he intend to eject us? We are going nowhere.”

Samir Abu Basel, a father-of-five who is also in Gaza City, told Reuters that “Trump can go to hell, with his ideas, with his money, and with his beliefs”.

“We are going nowhere,” he reiterated. “We are not some of his assets.”