New backlash over Trump plan to move people out of Gaza

A tent camp for displaced Palestinians is set up amid destroyed buildings in Shijaiyah neighbourhood, Gaza City, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (AP)
A tent camp for displaced Palestinians is set up amid destroyed buildings in Shijaiyah neighbourhood, Gaza City, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (AP)
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Updated 29 January 2025
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New backlash over Trump plan to move people out of Gaza

New backlash over Trump plan to move people out of Gaza
  • “We emphasize that Jordan’s national security dictates that the Palestinians must remain on their land and that the Palestinian people must not be subjected to any kind of forced displacement whatsoever,” Jordanian’s spokesman Mohammad Momani said
  • Israel has killed at least 47,317 people in Gaza, the majority civilians according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable

JERUSALEM: An idea floated by US President Donald Trump to move Gazans to Egypt or Jordan faced a renewed backlash Tuesday as hundreds of thousands of Gazans displaced by the Israel-Hamas war returned to their devastated neighborhoods.

A fragile ceasefire and hostage release deal took effect earlier this month, intended to end more than 15 months of war that began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

After the ceasefire came into force, Trump touted a plan to “clean out” the Gaza Strip, reiterating the idea on Monday as he called for Palestinians to move to “safer” locations such as Egypt or Jordan.

The US president, who has repeatedly claimed credit for sealing the truce deal after months of fruitless negotiations, also said he would meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington “very soon.”

Jordan, which has a tumultuous history with Palestinian movements, on Tuesday renewed its rejection of Trump’s proposal.

“We emphasize that Jordan’s national security dictates that the Palestinians must remain on their land and that the Palestinian people must not be subjected to any kind of forced displacement whatsoever,” Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad Momani said.

Qatar, which played a leading role in the truce mediation, on Tuesday said that it often did not see “eye to eye” with its allies, including the United States.

“Our position has always been clear to the necessity of the Palestinian people receiving their rights, and that the two-state solution is the only path forward,” Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said.

Following reports that Trump had spoken with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi at the weekend, Cairo said there had been no such phone call.

“A senior official source denied what some media outlets reported about a phone call between the Egyptian and American presidents,” Egypt’s state information service said.

On Monday, Trump reportedly said the pair had spoken, saying of El-Sisi: “I wish he would take some (Palestinians).”

After Trump first floated the idea, Egypt rejected the forced displacement of Gazans, expressing its “continued support for the steadfastness of the Palestinian people on their land.”

France, another US ally, on Tuesday said any forced displacement of Gazans would be “unacceptable.”

It would also be a “destabilization factor (for) our close allies Egypt and Jordan,” a French foreign ministry spokesman said.

Moving Gaza’s 2.4 million people could be done “temporarily or could be long term,” Trump said on Saturday.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he was working with the prime minister “to prepare an operational plan to ensure that President Trump’s vision is realized.”

Smotrich, who opposed the ceasefire deal, did not provide any details on the purported plan.

For Palestinians, any attempts to force them from Gaza would evoke dark memories of what the Arab world calls the “Nakba,” or catastrophe — the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel’s creation in 1948.

“We say to Trump and the whole world: we will not leave Palestine or Gaza, no matter what happens,” said displaced Gazan Rashad Al-Naji.

Almost all of the Gaza Strip’s inhabitants were displaced at least once by the war that has levelled much of the Palestinian territory.

The ceasefire hinges on the release during a first phase of 33 Israeli hostages held in Gaza in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

On Monday, Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said eight of the hostages due for release in the first phase are dead.

Since the truce began on January 19, seven Israeli women have been freed, as have about 290 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

On Monday, after Hamas and Israel agreed over the release of six hostages this week, “more than 300,000 displaced” Gazans were able to return to the north, according to the Hamas government media office.

“I’m happy to be back at my home,” said Saif Al-Din Qazaat, who returned to northern Gaza but had to sleep in a tent next to the ruins of his destroyed house.

“I kept a fire burning all night near the kids to keep them warm... (they) slept peacefully despite the cold, but we don’t have enough blankets,” the 41-year-old told AFP.

Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,210 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

During the attack, militants took into Gaza 251 hostages. Eighty-seven remain in the territory, including dozens Israel says are dead.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 47,317 people in Gaza, the majority civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the UN considers reliable.

“In terms of the death toll, yes, we do have confidence. But let’s not forget, the official death toll given by the Ministry of Health, is deaths accounted in morgues and in hospitals, so in official facilities,” World Health Organization spokesman Christian Lindmeier said Tuesday.

“As people go back to their houses, as they will start looking for their loved ones under the rubble, this casualty figure is expected to increase,” he added.

 

 


Thousands in besieged Sudan city at ‘risk of starvation’: WFP

Updated 3 sec ago
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Thousands in besieged Sudan city at ‘risk of starvation’: WFP

Thousands in besieged Sudan city at ‘risk of starvation’: WFP
“Everyone in El-Fasher is facing a daily struggle to survive,” said Perdison of WFP
“Without immediate and sustained access, lives will be lost“

PORT SUDAN: Thousands of families trapped in a besieged city in war-torn Sudan’s west are at “risk of starvation,” the World Food Programme warned on Tuesday.

Since May last year, El-Fasher, the state capital of North Darfur, has been under siege by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have been at war with the army since April 2023.

The RSF has encircled the city, blocking all major roads and trapping hundreds of thousands of civilians with dwindling food supplies and limited humanitarian access.

“Everyone in El-Fasher is facing a daily struggle to survive,” said Eric Perdison, the WFP’s regional director for eastern and southern Africa.

“People’s coping mechanisms have been completely exhausted by over two years of war. Without immediate and sustained access, lives will be lost.”

El-Fasher is the last major city in Darfur still held by the army, and has come under renewed attack by RSF fighters this year since the paramilitaries withdrew from Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.

A major RSF assault on the Zamzam displacement camp near El-Fasher in April forced hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee, with many seeking shelter in the city.

According to the WFP, prices for staple foods like sorghum and wheat — used to make traditional flatbreads and porridge — are as much as 460 percent higher in El-Fasher than in other parts of Sudan.

Markets and clinics have been attacked, while community kitchens that once fed displaced families have largely shut down due to a lack of supplies, the UN agency added.

Desperate families are reportedly surviving on animal fodder and food waste, while acute malnutrition is soaring, especially among children.

According to the UN, nearly 40 percent of children under five in El-Fasher are now acutely malnourished, with 11 percent suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

The rainy season, which peaks in August, is further hampering efforts to reach the city, with roads rapidly deteriorating.

Last year, famine was first declared in Zamzam, later spreading to two other nearby camps — Al-Salam and Abu Shouk — and some parts of Sudan’s south, according to the UN.

The war, now in its third year, has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and created what the UN describes as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crises.

The country is effectively split in two, with the army controlling the north, east and center of Sudan and the RSF dominating nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south.

Netanyahu says Israel must complete defeat of Hamas to free hostages

Netanyahu says Israel must complete defeat of Hamas to free hostages
Updated 14 min 59 sec ago
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Netanyahu says Israel must complete defeat of Hamas to free hostages

Netanyahu says Israel must complete defeat of Hamas to free hostages
  • “It is necessary to complete the defeat of the enemy in Gaza,” Netanyahu said

Jerusalem: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday Israel must “complete” the defeat of Hamas to free hostages held in Gaza, a day after Israeli media reported the army could occupy the entire territory.

“It is necessary to complete the defeat of the enemy in Gaza, to free all our hostages and to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel,” Netanyahu said during a visit to an army training facility.


US house speaker condemned over West Bank visit

US house speaker condemned over West Bank visit
Updated 23 min 49 sec ago
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US house speaker condemned over West Bank visit

US house speaker condemned over West Bank visit
  • Mike Johnson tells Israeli settlers their country is ‘rightful owner’ of Palestinian territory
  • Palestinian Foreign Ministry: Trip ‘undermines Arab and American efforts to stop cycle of violence’

LONDON: US House Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republican officials visited the occupied West Bank on Monday in support of Israeli settlements, The Guardian reported.

Johnson met Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar before his visit to the Palestinian territory.

The last high-profile American visit to the West Bank was in 2020, when then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Psagot, an Israeli settlement near the Palestinian city of Ramallah.

Johnson’s private trip was hosted by a pro-Israel organization and was not part of an official delegation from Congress, Axios reported.

He was joined by Republicans Michael McCaul, Nathaniel Moran and Michael Cloud of Texas, as well as Claudia Tenney of New York.

Johnson told settlers that their country is the “rightful owner” of the Palestinian territory, which “must remain an integral part” of Israel. “Even if the world thinks otherwise, we stand with you.”

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned Johnson’s visit, and said Israel’s occupation of the West Bank is a “blatant violation of international law.”

The trip “undermines Arab and American efforts to stop the war and cycle of violence, while flagrantly contradicting the declared US position on settlements and settler violence,” it added.

Johnson also appealed to religious sensibilities in the US, saying his country should use its 250th independence anniversary next year “to remind the American people of its Judeo-Christian foundations that were formed here in the land of Israel.”

He is expected to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before returning to the US on Sunday.


Islamist militants free Moroccan truck drivers held since January, Mali says

Islamist militants free Moroccan truck drivers held since January, Mali says
Updated 27 min 6 sec ago
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Islamist militants free Moroccan truck drivers held since January, Mali says

Islamist militants free Moroccan truck drivers held since January, Mali says
  • The men and their three trucks disappeared in January while crossing without an escort from Dori in Burkina Faso to Tera in Niger

BAMAKO: Islamic State-affiliated militants have released four Moroccan truck drivers kidnapped in January, Mali said late on Monday, according to state media, highlighting growing intelligence cooperation between the two countries.

The men and their three trucks disappeared in January while crossing without an escort from Dori in Burkina Faso to Tera in Niger, an area known for jihadist threats, a diplomatic source said at the time.

They were shown alongside Mali junta leader Assimi Goita in footage broadcast on Monday night by state media, which reported that they had been freed on Sunday.

Junta-led Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali are battling militant groups linked to Al-Qaeda and Islamic State that have been destabilising West Africa’s Sahel region for more than a decade.

All three countries have halted defense cooperation with France and other Western forces and turned toward Russia for military support. And last year they announced their withdrawal from the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), raising the risk of diplomatic isolation.

Morocco has meanwhile drawn closer to the three landlocked countries.

In April, the foreign ministers of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali endorsed an initiative offering them access to global trade through Morocco’s Atlantic ports. Morocco also mediated to secure the release in December of four French nationals who had been held in Burkina Faso for a year.

The release on Sunday of the four truck drivers came as a result of cooperation between the security and intelligence services of Mali and Morocco, Malian state media reported.


Turkish parliamentary committee begins work on PKK peace initiative

Turkish parliamentary committee begins work on PKK peace initiative
Updated 05 August 2025
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Turkish parliamentary committee begins work on PKK peace initiative

Turkish parliamentary committee begins work on PKK peace initiative
  • Fighters from the group began laying down their weapons in a symbolic ceremony in northern Iraq last month
  • The PKK announced in May that it would disband and renounce armed conflict, ending four decades of hostilities

ANKARA: A newly formed parliamentary committee tasked with overseeing a peace initiative with a Kurdish militant group held its inaugural meeting on Tuesday, marking a further significant step toward ending a decades-long insurgency.

The 51-member committee, comprised of legislators from most major parties, has been charged with proposing and supervising legal and political reforms aimed at advancing the peace process, following the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK’s, decision to disband and lay down arms.

Fighters from the group began laying down their weapons in a symbolic ceremony in northern Iraq last month, the first concrete step toward disarmament.

In his opening remarks, Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmus called the committee’s launch a “historic turning point.”

“The commission gathered here is no ordinary delegation; it is a historic one, demonstrating the courage to repair our future and the will to strengthen social integration,” he said.

“In this hall, we are witnessing the beginning of a new era, representing the will of the nation,” he said, before the proceedings were closed to journalists.

The committee was on Tuesday expected to decide on how to proceed and to select an official name.

The PKK announced in May that it would disband and renounce armed conflict, ending four decades of hostilities. The move came after PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since 1999, urged his group in February to convene a congress and formally disband and disarm.

The PKK has waged an armed insurgency against Turkiye since 1984, initially with the aim of establishing a Kurdish state in the southeast of the country. Over time, the objective evolved into a campaign for autonomy and rights for Kurds within Turkiye.

The conflict between militants and state forces, which has spread beyond Turkiye’s borders into Iraq and Syria, has killed tens of thousands of people. The PKK is considered to be a terrorist organization by Turkiye, the United States and the European Union.

Previous peace efforts between Turkiye and the PKK have ended in failure — most recently in 2015.