Hamid Khoshayand – Expert on Regional Issues

This plan was also discussed several times in the internal circles of the United States, and the Israeli regime during the Gaza war, but the resistance of the people of Gaza, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad did not allow it to be realized.

The transfer of the people of Gaza is part of a “big dream” that says to let the “State of Israel” become a reality, the people of the West Bank must be relocated to Jordan, the residents of the Gaza Strip to Egypt, and the Palestinians and Arabs living in the occupied territories to other countries.

The goal the Zionist regime failed to achieve in the war has now been raised for the umpteenth time in light of Trump’s role in ending the Gaza war. In recent days, the new US president, aligned with elements of the Zionist regime’s extreme right, has called for the complete evacuation of the region and the resettlement of Palestinians in neighboring Arab countries in his controversial statements, under the “pretext” of solving the problems in Gaza. Trump has called his plan a strategy for the effective evacuation” of Gaza.

This is the first time that a US president has “explicitly” and “publicly” raised the long-standing dream of the Israeli regime to expel the residents of Gaza. Apparently, the US government intends to force Jordan and Egypt to accept and resettle more than two million Palestinians this time, using financial and economic incentives and, if necessary, threats and politico-economic pressure.

Of course, Trump’s plan is nothing more than a dream because it faces significant obstacles, the most important of which are discussed below:

The first obstacle is that Trump’s plan faces “serious opposition” at the “origin” and “destination” where it should be implemented, and the necessary conditions and platforms for its advancement and implementation do not exist. Experience has shown that the “resistant” people of Gaza will not submit to the implementation of such a plan under any circumstances and will not leave Gaza.

As mentioned, the expulsion of Gaza residents has been pursued in various forms by the US government and the Israeli regime for more than 70 years. Since 1953, when Egypt, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees, and the US first agreed to resettle 12,000 Palestinian refugee families from the Gaza Strip in the Sinai Peninsula, until today, when the plan above has been proposed again, it has remained only on paper. Hence, its implementation is definitely not possible.

The realities of Gaza are different from what the Americans and Zionists imagine. Gaza has experienced military aggression and various pressures over the past 70 years and has gone through extremely difficult conditions. Despite the great human tragedies imposed on the people of Gaza, its people have become more resistant to expulsion and displacement than before.

If they were to leave Gaza, the people, who were in the worst living, humanitarian, security, economic, etc. conditions during the recent war and did not even have access to drinking water, would have left this city. Still, due to the will and resistance of the people, this did not happen. People who did not even move from north to south within Gaza cannot be forced to leave the land.

The second obstacle is Egypt’s and Jordan’s strong opposition to implementing such a plan. They consider it a cause of conflict spread and contrary to their national interests and security. In response to US President Donald Trump’s call to temporarily relocate Gaza residents to neighboring countries, the Jordanian Foreign Minister wrote on his Facebook page: “Our opposition to permanent displacement is irreversible and necessary to achieve the stability and peace we all desire.”

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry also issued a statement, noting: “Forced displacement of Palestinians from their lands, whether temporary or long-term, is unacceptable. Cairo opposes any violation of the rights of the Palestinian people through settlement construction or land annexation.”

It is worth noting that Trump’s plan was also proposed by Tel Aviv leaders at the beginning of the Gaza war, but Jordan and Egypt strongly rejected such a proposal.

The third obstacle is the widespread opposition at the regional and international levels to the relocation of Gazans. It seems that apart from the Zionist regime’s cabinet and extremist elements in this regime, as well as the US government, no country or regional or international institution, even among US partners, is in favor of transferring the people of Gaza outside occupied Palestine.

The fourth obstacle is the plan’s inconsistency with international law conventions and international resolutions. For example, Article 49, paragraph 1, of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits “collective or individual deportations from occupied territories to the territory of the occupying power or another country.” The Charter of the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal in 1945 and the Statute of the International Criminal Court have both defined the collective deportation of a civilian population under certain circumstances as a “crime against humanity.”

The fifth obstacle is the opposition to this plan within the US, even among Trump’s own party members. For example, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who is known for his extremism, war-mongering, and support for the Israeli regime, does not consider such an idea or plan to be practical.

Therefore, it is natural that raising such issues before they are a solution to the Palestinian issue, and the people of Gaza will become a source for other issues and the beginning of a new round of conflicts and violence. Raising such ideas encourages the criminal Israeli regime to continue its war and humanitarian crimes in Gaza.

Attempting to expel the residents of Gaza is the “red line” of Palestinian resistance groups and the Islamic Resistance Front in the region. The only solution to the Palestinian issue is the end of the occupation and the liberation of Qods.