Could Trump’s Plan To Get Gazans Out of the Strip Actually Work?

As throngs of people move back to the ruins of northern Gaza, President Trump’s plan to temporarily get them out of the Strip to facilitate its rebuilding is being nearly universally jeered. Yet could it nevertheless work?As Israel Defense Force troops on Monday withdrew from most of the Netzarim Corridor that cuts Gaza in half, hundreds of thousands Palestinians started making their way toward areas where they had lived before the war. Many had praise for Hamas fighters, seeing them as resistance heroes who took on one of the world’s fiercest armies and survived. Yet, they are returning to neighborhoods largely ruined, having been turned to rubble during the war. Entire towns outside of Gaza proper have been erased since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. Some Gazans might now be blaming the Strip’s rulers for causing them to lose their homes. Gaza is “literally a demolition site right now, almost everything’s demolished, and people are dying there,” Mr. Trump told reporters over the weekend. “I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location, where they can maybe live in peace.”Mr. Trump spoke in between calls to King Abdullah II of Jordan and President al-Sisi of Egypt. “You’re talking about probably a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” the president said. Relocating Gazans to Arab countries “could be temporary, could be long term.” His idea, which is reportedly gaining support among some Israelis, is nevertheless being widely condemned elsewhere as a war crime, ethnic cleansing, or worse. “Our rejection of the displacement of Palestinians is firm and will not change,” Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, said. “Jordan is for Jordanians and Palestine is for Palestinians.” Cairo’s foreign ministry, similarly, denounced any attempt at “depopulation” of Gaza. “We will not allow the repetition of the catastrophes that befell our people in 1948 and 1967,” President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority chimed in. Arabs have long considered these years — which saw the founding of Israel and its six-day war victory and are known as the Nakba — as major catastrophes, even as in both cases Arabs were the aggressors.The Arab refugees of 1948 were housed at enclosed camps in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt. Responsibility to run the refugee camps was granted to a dedicated United Nations agency, Unrwa. Rather than absorbing the 700,000 refugees of 1948, Arab countries insisted on maintaining their stateless status.By now more than 6 million descendants of these Palestinian Arabs remain classified as refugees. They are considered stateless even in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. While Jordan affords them many rights, in Lebanon they are banned from practicing even the most lowly professions. Following its 1967 victory and takeover of Gaza and Judea and Samaria, Israel found itself controlling refugee camps, which in reality are spiraling shantytowns. Jerusalem offered to rehouse Gazans in return for ending their status as refugees. Under Arab pressure, though, the UN General Assembly rejected the plan in favor of the refugee descendants’ “right of return” to Israeli territory. Current resistance to Mr. Trump’s plan is similar to that rejection, though new complications have arisen since the 1970s. The Hashemites of Jordan are a small minority in a majority-Palestinian country. Adding even more Palestinians could threaten an already delicate Jordanian balance act. Egypt has steadfastly refused to absorb any Gazans during the current war, even as its Gaza-adjacent Sinai desert is thinly populated. The Sissi regime is fighting Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, which opposes his hold on power. Adding Hamas, a Muslim Brotherhood offshoot, to the mix could complicate things. As part of a cease-fire agreement launched two weeks ago, Gazans who had lived in encampments in the Strip’s south were scheduled to begin moving north on Sunday, following the release of four female Israelis. On Saturday, though, Hamas reneged on freeing a civilian woman, Arbel Yehud.Israel then announced it would stay in the Netzarim corridor until Hamas committed to freeing Ms. Yehud. Under pressure from Washington, Doha, and Cairo, Hamas relented. Ms. Yehud is now scheduled for release on Thursday, alongside another female soldier, Agam Berger, and a third, unidentified man. According to some reports the third man is an American citizen, Keith Siegal. Hamas also agreed to release three additional men on Saturday. Two American contractors, UG Solutions of North Carolina and Wyoming’s Safe Reach Solutions, are now replacing the IDF at the Netzarim corridor. They are charged with preventing arms and non-civilians moving to the north. Yet, Hamas is now back in charge of Gaza. Regardless, Israelis are praising their government’s insistence that the fragile agreement be fully implemented, resulting in six hostages being scheduled to return home this week, rather than three.Some Israelis similarly believe that if Mr. Trump sticks to his guns and pushes his plan for a Gaza reclamation project, a new Mideast mindset might emerge at last.

Could Trump’s Plan To Get Gazans Out of the Strip Actually Work?

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