The National Times - Palestinians slam Trump idea to 'clean out' Gaza

Meanwhile, Palestinian sources said a dispute linked to hostage-prisoner swaps under the Israel-Hamas truce deal may be nearing a solution that could allow vast crowds of Palestinians jamming a coastal road to return to northern Gaza.

The latest swap saw four Israeli women hostages, all soldiers, and 200 prisoners, nearly all Palestinian, released on Saturday to joyful scenes, in the second such exchange during the fragile truce entering its second week.

After 15 months of war, Trump said Gaza had become a "demolition site", adding he had spoken to Jordan's King Abdullah II about moving Palestinians out of the territory.

"I'd like Egypt to take people. And I'd like Jordan to take people," Trump told reporters.

Palestinian president Abbas, based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, "expressed strong rejection and condemnation of any projects" aimed at displacing Palestinians from Gaza, a statement from his office said.

The Palestinian people "will not abandon their land and holy sites", it added.

Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas's political bureau, told AFP that Palestinians would "foil such projects", as they have done to similar plans "for displacement and alternative homelands over the decades".

Islamic Jihad, which has fought alongside Hamas in Gaza, called Trump's idea "deplorable" and said it encouraged "war crimes and crimes against humanity by forcing our people to leave their land".

For Palestinians, any attempt to move 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 Gaza resident Rashad al-Naji.

- 'Firm rejection' -

"You're talking about probably a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing," Trump said of Gaza, whose population is about 2.4 million.

Moving Gaza's inhabitants could be done "temporarily or could be long term", he said.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said "our rejection of the displacement of Palestinians is firm and will not change. Jordan is for Jordanians and Palestine is for Palestinians."

Egypt's foreign ministry said it rejected any infringement of Palestinians' "inalienable rights", including "settlement or annexation of land, or by the depopulation of that land of its people through displacement, or encouraged transfer or the uprooting of Palestinians from their land, whether temporarily or long-term".

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who opposed the truce deal and has voiced support for re-establishing Israeli settlements in Gaza, said Trump's suggestion of "helping them find other places to start a better life is a great idea".

Almost all Gazans have been displaced by the war that began after Hamas's attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

In Gaza, cars and carts loaded with belongings jammed a road near the Netzarim Corridor that Israel has blocked, preventing the expected return of hundreds of thousands of people to northern Gaza.

Israel said it would prevent Palestinians' passage until the release of Arbel Yehud, a civilian woman hostage.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said that by not releasing her and not providing a "detailed list of all hostages' statuses", Hamas had committed truce violations.

Hamas said that blocking returns to the north also amounted to a truce violation, adding it had provided "all the necessary guarantees" for Yehud's release.

- 'Crisis resolved' -

Two Palestinian sources later told AFP Yehud will be handed over within days.

"The crisis has been resolved," said a Palestinian source familiar with the issue.

Israel has yet to comment.

During the first phase of the Gaza truce, 33 hostages should be freed in staggered releases over six weeks in exchange for around 1,900 Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

Dani Miran, whose hostage son Omri is not slated for release during the first phase, demonstrated outside Netanyahu's office in Jerusalem on Sunday.

"We want the agreement to continue and for them to bring our children back as quickly as possible -- and all at once," he said.

The truce has brought a surge of food, fuel, medicines and other aid into rubble-strewn Gaza, but the UN says "the humanitarian situation remains dire".

Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack, 87 remain in Gaza, including 34 the military says are dead.

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

Israel has also reached a ceasefire with Hamas ally Hezbollah in Lebanon which stipulates that Israeli forces must withdraw by Sunday -- but that has not happened.

Lebanon's health ministry said Israeli troops killed nearly two dozen people as residents tried to return to their homes near the border, while the Israeli army said soldiers "fired warning shots" against "suspects".

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G.Waters--TNT