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<h1 class="gmail-single_title">Only Hamas will undermine Trump’s plan to expel Gaza’s residents</h1>
<div class="gmail-article-author"><h3>By <a href="https://english.palinfo.com/?p=250385"> Motasem A Dalloul </a></h3></div>
<p class="gmail-single_date">Friday 7-February-2025 - <font size="1"><a href="https://english.palinfo.com/opinion_articles/only-hamas-will-undermine-trumps-plan-to-expel-gazas-residents/">https://english.palinfo.com/opinion_articles/only-hamas-will-undermine-trumps-plan-to-expel-gazas-residents/</a></font></p>
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<p>During his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US
President Donald Trump expressed his intention to expel the residents
of the occupied Gaza Strip, which has been subjected to an unprecedented
livestreamed genocide committed by the brutal Israeli occupation forces
using, mainly, American arms and money.</p>
<p>“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,” Trump told
reporters. He also said that the Americans would “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.”</p>
<p>As he was standing alongside Netanyahu, Trump looked serious. “You
build really good quality housing, like a beautiful town, like some
place where they can live and not die, because Gaza is a guarantee that
they’re going to end up dying.”</p>
<p>“Why would they want to return? The place has been hell,” he
continued, showcasing the core of his delusional plan. This even
embarrassed reporters, with one saying: “But it’s their home, Sir. Why
would they leave?”</p>
<p>If the US wanted to rebuild Gaza, create an unlimited number of jobs
and turn it into a beautiful area, why did they send money, arms and
troops to destroy it and kill its people?</p>
<p>Trump is trying to do the job himself, after the Israeli occupation
failed to expel the Palestinian from Gaza during the 15-month genocide.</p>
<p>“The bonds of friendship and affection between the American and
Israeli people have endured for generations, and they are absolutely
unbreakable,” Trump said, highlighting that he cares little about the
global outrage caused by Israel’s total destruction of Gaza.</p>
<p>The strange plan also drew global criticism as world leaders
reiterated that ethnically cleansing a population is a stark violation
of international laws and conventions. But these laws and conventions
mean very little to Palestinians who are facing a fierce and immoral
occupation which has global backing in spite of its illegal conduct.</p>
<p>For 15 months, the world could not stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza or
even send food, water and medical aid to Palestinian children, women and
men who were struggling to survive. Most of the global super powers
even backed the genocide, justified or whitewashed it. Therefore, the
burden of facing Trump’s plan lies on the shoulders of the Palestinians
themselves.</p>
<p>Can they do it? Yes, they can!</p>
<p>How can they face a superpower when they have no resources or allies?
The Palestinians today are not the Palestinians of 1948, 1967 or 1993.
In 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled their homes to
escape the internationally-backed Zionist war crimes, ending up in
refugee camps inside and outside Palestine and paving the way for the
creation of the state of Israel on most of the area of historic
Palestine.</p>
<p>In 1967, Israel occupied the remaining land of historic Palestine
along with large areas of Syria and Egypt. Both countries have signed
American-brokered agreements that settled their differences with Israel
at the expense of their honor and dignity.</p>
<p>After the surrender of the Arabs to Israel, the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO) agreed to go after the mirage of peace with the
Israeli occupation state and reached an agreement in 1993 that included
the PLO’s concession of Palestinian lands occupied in 1948 and
stipulated ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land occupied in
1967.</p>
<p>Since then, the occupation has expanded and the creation of a
Palestinian state has become even less likely. Instead of complying with
Israeli pledges which were included in the peace agreement, Israeli
leaders have been getting clearer in their promises to get rid of the
Palestinians and occupy all of their historic land.</p>
<p>This has been very clear during the Gaza genocide. From day one,
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant described Palestinians as “human
animals” and ordered the army to cut all water, electricity and fuel
supplies to them. His army then went on to kill women, children, doctors
and patients. They also destroyed hospitals, schools, universities,
electricity grids, water pipes, sewage installations and communication
hubs in an attempt to force the residents of Gaza out to Egypt, but they
failed.</p>
<p>During the past 15 months, the Israeli occupation, backed by most
world leaders, committed all kinds of crimes with complete impunity.
Meanwhile, Palestinians were alone, using only primitive homemade
weapons to fight back and inflict losses on the “invincible army”. This
pushed leaders of the occupation state to insist on ending the war in a
way that pleases the Palestinian resistance, making “hard concessions”
for Israel.</p>
<p>Israeli hardliners refused this, but at the end, they kneeled down
and accepted the Palestinian conditions for the ceasefire. Most people
think that Trump put pressure on Netanyahu to accept a ceasefire, but I
insist that the Israeli occupation agreed to the ceasefire due to the
occupation army’s failure to achieve the declared ‘war goals’ after more
than 15 months of committing war crimes and carrying out a livestream
genocide.</p>
<p>Palestinians have never seen resistance like what happened in Gaza. A
young fighter in plain clothes and basic weapons, without protective
military gear, attacking the most fortified and developed tank, shooting
and destroying it. American, British and Israeli high-tech spy drones
in addition to F16 and F35 jets could not detect them or undermine their
defensive attacks that led to the defeat of the best equipped army in
the region, backed by the most well-equipped and trained armies in the
world.</p>
<p>Following Trump’s remarks about his plan to expel Gaza’s residents,
Hamas said: “We will never allow Trump’s plan to go ahead.” When Hamas,
the Palestinian resistance movement which enjoys the overwhelming
support of the Palestinians, makes such a remark, it means that it is
able to back it up. This is why Trump’s Secretary of State, Marco Rubio,
posted on X saying: “Gaza MUST BE FREE from Hamas.”</p>
<p>They know the truth and the Palestinians also know it. The
Palestinians no longer trust Arab and world leaders. They no longer
believe that Hamas is a terrorist organization that is causing the
destruction of their hopes and dreams. They believe now that supporting
it is the only way to undermine Trump and Israel’s expulsion plans,
achieve their hopes and aspirations, the liberation of their land and
the creation of their state.</p>
<p><em>-Motasem A Dalloul is MEMO’s correspondent in the Gaza Strip.</em></p>
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