Israel has ordered its army to draw up a plan to enable Palestinians to leave Gaza after Donald Trump said the US could “take over” the territory and resettle its residents. International criticism has continued to mount against the proposal. Listen to the Trump 100 podcast as you scroll.
Thursday 6 February 2025 07:58, UK
Moving away from Gaza for a moment, there’s more news on one of Trump’s other key policies from his first few weeks in office – his trade war.
China has branded US tariffs as “vile” after filing a complaint with the World Trade Organisation.
The “unilateralist” move exacerbated global trade tensions, the Chinese commerce ministry said.
Trump has imposed sweeping 10% tariffs on all Chinese imports.
He Yongqian, a ministry spokesperson, said China was ready to work with other countries to jointly respond to the challenges of unilateralism and trade protectionism.
China has retaliated with levies of its own, set to come into force on Monday.
This includes a 15% levy on US coal and liquified natural gas, and 10% on crude oil, farm equipment and a small number of trucks.
International condemnation continues to mount against Donald Trump’s plan to take over Gaza and resettle the Palestinians living there.
This morning, Malaysia said any proposal for their forced displacement constituted ethnic cleansing and a violation of international law.
Neighbouring Indonesia said it rejected “any attempt to forcibly displace Palestinians or alter the demographic composition of the occupied Palestinian territory”.
They join the host of countries that have roundly criticised Trump’s proposal since the announcement on Tuesday evening, including the UK, Spain and Turkey, which called it “absurd”.
The ideas also drew rebuke from world powers Russia, China and Germany, which said it would foster “new suffering and new hatred”.
Regional heavyweight and US ally Saudi Arabia rejected the proposal outright.
It was unclear whether Trump would go ahead with his proposal or was laying out an extreme position as a bargaining ploy.
Jordan‘s King Abdullah, who will meet Trump at the White House next week, said he rejected any moves to annex land and displace Palestinians.
Egypt said it would back Gaza recovery plans without Palestinians leaving the territory.
Israeli defence minister Israel Katz has ordered the army to prepare a plan to allow Palestinians to leave Gaza if they want to.
The instruction follows Donald Trump’s shock announcement that the US plans to “take over” Gaza and resettle the Palestinians living there – which would amount to ethnic cleansing, according to human rights experts.
Katz said he welcomed Trump’s “courageous plan, which could enable a wide swathe of the population in Gaza to leave to various places around the world”, according to The Times of Israel.
When asked by Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 who would take in the Palestinians, Katz said it should be countries that have opposed Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
“Countries like Spain, Ireland, Norway and others, which have levelled accusations and false claims against Israel over its actions in Gaza, are legally obligated to allow any Gaza resident to enter their territories,” he said.
Katz’s plan will include exit options via land crossings, as well as special arrangements for departure by sea and air, Channel 12 reported.
For context: Gaza has been called an open air prison, with Israel blocking most of its residents from traveling abroad, exacerbated by Egypt’s restrictive policies at the Rafah crossing – the only crossing out of Gaza into a country other than Israel.
Israel also prevents Palestinian authorities from operating an airport or seaport in Gaza.
Gaza’s more than two million residents have been living under “lockdown” since 2007, according to Human Rights Watch.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said there was nothing wrong with Donald Trump’s idea of displacing Palestinians from Gaza.
Rights groups condemned as ethnic cleansing Trump’s suggestion that Palestinians should be permanently displaced, while also proposing a US takeover of Gaza.
His press secretary rowed back, saying Gazans would be “temporarily relocated”.
In an interview with Fox News, Netanyahu backed the idea of “allowing Gazans who want to leave to leave”.
He added: “I mean, what’s wrong with that? They can leave, they can then come back, they can relocate and come back. But you have to rebuild Gaza.”
Netanyahu said he did not believe Trump suggested sending US troops to fight Hamas in Gaza or that Washington would finance rebuilding efforts.
“This is the first good idea that I’ve heard,” he added.
“It’s a remarkable idea, and I think it should be really pursued, examined, pursued and done, because I think it will create a different future for everyone.”
Trump has repeatedly suggested that Palestinians in Gaza should be taken in by regional Arab nations such as Egypt and Jordan, an idea rejected by both the Arab states and Palestinian leaders.
Good morning and welcome back to our live coverage of Donald Trump’s first 100 days as US president.
It’s day 18, and he’s already enacted a swathe of executive orders, started a trade war with China and made controversial comments on Gaza.
Before we get going with another day of coverage, here’s a brief recap of what’s happened in the past 24 hours:
Watch: Trump’s trans ban explained
We’re pausing our live coverage of Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office, but we’ll be back with you bright and early tomorrow morning.
Before we return, here’s a quick recap of what’s been happening in the US during the last 24 hours:
Domestic policy
Trump signed his latest executive order, banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s and girls’ sport.
The move is designed to prevent people who were biologically assigned male at birth from participating in certain sporting events, including those at school.
Ahead of signing the order, Mr Trump said: “From now on women’s sports will be only for women.
“We’ve gotten the woke lunacy out of our military and now we’re getting it out of women’s sports.”
In other domestic policy news:
Foreign policy
Much of the world spent today catching up on Trump’s plan for Gaza – revealed yesterday alongside Benjamin Netanyahu, and they didn’t like it.
Trump’s comments suggesting the US “take over” the enclave and turn it into the “Middle East Riviera” were widely condemned by political opponents, world leaders, humanitarian groups and, most importantly, Palestinians.
Egypt and Jordan – who have been touted to receive, Palestinians, rejected the idea immediately, whilst Saudi Arabia, an important American ally, said its calls for an independent Palestinian state were “unwavering”.
Democrat Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American member of US Congress, said Trump’s comments amounted to “ethnic cleansing”.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, said simply: “Our homeland is our homeland.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared to row back on the president’s comments in the While House briefing room earlier today.
She repeatedly said the US wanted to relocate Palestinians “temporarily” rather than “permanently”, as Trump had said several times yesterday.
In other foreign policy news:
The US secretary of state has described Donald Trump’s offer to rebuild the Gaza Strip as “very generous”.
“I think it’s one people need to think about seriously,” Marco Rubio told reporters in Guatemala City.
“It was not meant as a hostile move. It was meant as, I think, a very generous move, the offer to rebuild and to be in charge of the rebuilding of a place many parts of which, right now, even if people move back, they would have nowhere to live safely because there are still unexploded munitions and debris and rubble.”
He added that the task would be an “enormous undertaking” but insisted Trump made the offer “very generously”.
“The only thing Trump has done… is offer the United States’ willingness to step in, clear the debris, clean the place up from all the destruction that’s on the ground, clean it up of all these unexploded munitions,” he said.
Donald Trump’s proposal for the US to “take over” Gaza is “not only destructive, but criminal also”, the Palestinian National Initiative’s secretary general has said.
Speaking to our chief presenter Mark Austin, Mustafa Barghouti said: “It really is amazing to hear the US president calling for a violation of international law, the worst kind of war crime.
“He’s calling for the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people in Gaza and in that, he’s violating every aspect of international law.
“This call is not only destructive, but criminal also.”
He went on to say every Palestinian is “totally and completely against” Trump’s plan.
Ex-Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak has told Sky News he is “deeply doubtful” about the practicality of Donald Trump’s Gaza plan.
He said: “I cannot judge it, there are many in Israel who are really excited about it, but it seems to me deeply doubtful whether it can ever fly.”
Barak suggested Trump’s plan is “deliberately or subconsciously” being used as a “leverage upon Arab leaders” to force them to act and avoid America’s need to intervene.
By Ben van der Merwe and Kaitlin Tosh, digital investigations journalists
Donald Trump’s plan for the United States to “take control” of Gaza and his suggestion that Palestinians there move to Jordan or Egypt has brought up the memories of a history of forced displacement for many people in the territory.
The “Nakba”
The first mass exodus of Palestinians was in 1948, a time remembered by Palestinians as the “Nakba”, meaning “catastrophe” in Arabic.
Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced during the fighting that accompanied Israel’s founding, with many fleeing to neighbouring countries.
A 1949 UN mission report estimated that up to 757,000 Palestinians were displaced.
The majority – 480,000 – settled in the West Bank and in Gaza, which it described as a “tiny coastal desert area”. More than 240,000 moved to nearby Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
Six-day war
Many Palestinians were displaced again in June 1967, after Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the Six Day War. Estimates on the number of Palestinians displaced for the first time in 1967 range from just over 100,000 to 300,000. The majority fled to Jordan.
A UN report from the time states that “some 200,000 people” travelled from the West Bank to Jordan in three months.
All of the six of the “emergency” camps set up to house refugees in 1968 are still in place today. And the country is home to the largest number of displaced Palestinians outside of Occupied Palestinian Territories, according to UN data.
Most, but not all, have full Jordanian citizenship, and about 18% live in refugee camps.
Since Trump’s announcement, many Gazans have said they don’t want to move. Jordan’s King has rejected any displacement of Palestinians, affirming Jordan’s “full support for the Palestinians in gaining their legitimate rights” in a statement on X.
“They say they’re not going to accept,” said Trump, referring to Egypt and Jordan, adding, “I say they will”.
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