Israel said Thursday that preparations for the departure of a large number of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip online have begun with the plan of President Donald Trump for the territory. Meanwhile, the authorities said Egypt has launched a diplomatic bombing behind the scene to try to avoid the plan.
The Trump administration has already marked aspects of the proposal after it was widely rejected internationally, saying that the relocation of Palestinians would be temporary. American officials have provided few details about how or when the plan would be carried out.
In a social networks publication on Thursday, Trump said Israel would deliver Gaza to the United States after the conflict and that American soldiers would not be needed so that his plan reconstructs him.
The Palestinians have vehemently rejected Trump's proposal, fearing that Israel will never allow refugees to return. Egypt has warned that an expulsion of Palestinians would destabilize the region and undermine its peace treaty with Israel, an cornerstone of American stability and influence for decades.
Saudi Arabia, another key ally of the United States, has also rejected any massive transfer of Palestinians and says that it will not normalize relations with Israel, a key objective of the Trump administration, without the creation of a Palestinian state that includes Gaza.
Trump and Israelis officials have represented the proposed relocation of Gaza devastated by the conflict as a volunteer, but the Palestinians have universally expressed their determination to remain in their homeland.
Trump and Israeli officials have not said how they would respond if the Palestinians refuse to leave. But Human Rights Watch and other groups say that the plan is implemented, it would be equivalent to “ethnic cleaning”, the forced relocation of the civilian population of an ethnic group from a geographical area.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he ordered the military to make preparations to facilitate the emigration of a large number of Palestinians from Gaza through land crosses, as well as “special arrangements for the exit of the sea and the air “
There were no immediate signs of such preparations in the soil.
Egypt leaves a campaign behind the scene
The Egyptian president, Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi, has not publicly responded to Trump's surprising proposal that most of the Gaza population of 2.3 million Palestinians is relocated and the United States takes over the reconstruction of the territory. Israel's 15 month campaign against the Hamas militant group had reduced large parts of Gaza to the rubble before a fragile fire seized last month.
But the Egyptian officials, who speak on Wednesday with anonymity to discuss the conversations behind closed doors, said that Cairo has made clear the Trump and Israel administration to resist any proposal of this type, and that the peace agreement with Israel, who has defended almost almost half a century – is at risk.
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An official said the message has been delivered to the Pentagon, the State Department and the members of the United States Congress. A second official said that it has also been transmitted to Israel and its allies of Western Europe, including Britain, France and Germany.
A western diplomat in Cairo, who also speaks anonymously because the discussions have not been made public, confirmed that he received the message from Egypt through multiple channels. The diplomat said that Egypt was very serious and saw the plan as a threat to his national security.
The diplomat said that Egypt rejected similar proposals of the Biden Administration and European countries at the beginning of the conflict, which was caused by Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 to the south of Israel. The previous proposals were approached in private, while Trump announced his plan at a white house conference along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
American officials reduce Trump's proposal
Trump said he wanted to “permanently” reset the majority of the population of Gaza in other countries and that the United States takes care of cleaning the rubble and rebuilding Gaza as a “Riviera del Middle East” for all people. He did not rule out the deployment of US troops there.
American officials later seemed to return, saying that the relocation of Palestinians would be temporary and that Trump had not committed to putting US boots on the field or spending US tax dollars in Gaza.
Egyptian officials said that their government does not believe that the Palestinians need to be relocated so that the reconstruction proceeds and commits to the creation of a Palestinian State in Gaza, Bank and East Jerusalem, the Israel territories seized the Middle East War 1967.
The Israel Government opposes Palestinian status and has said that it will maintain open security control both on Gaza and in occupied West Bank. Israel annexed east of Jerusalem in a movement not recognized by the majority of the international community and considers the entire city its capital.
Last week, Egypt organized a meeting of the main diplomats of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which was the driving force behind Abraham 2020 agreements, Trump negotiated with Israel. The five Arab nations rejected the transfer of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank.
In an editorial on Thursday, the main state newspaper in Egypt, Al-Ahram, warned that “the independence of Arab countries, the unity of their peoples and their territorial integrity are under a serious threat.”
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press