'We live or die here': Gazans reject Trump proposal

 

War-displaced Palestinians finally back to the Gaza Strip's devastated north told AFP on Wednesday that they would never agree to give up the territory as US President Donald Trump has suggested.

Trump, in a White House news conference on Tuesday along with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, proposed "long-term ownership" of Gaza by the United States, days after another shock suggestion, that the territory's residents should move to Jordan or Egypt.

"We only have one choice: to live or die here", said Ahmed Halasa, a 41-year-old resident of Gaza City, standing by the ruins of a toppled building.

Even with large parts of the territory's north in ruins, hundreds of thousands of Gazans have returned since late January, part of a fragile truce that has halted more than 15 months of war between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.

"We returned despite the massive destruction and despite the lack of infrastructure, water and basic necessities," said Ahmed al-Minawi, 24, back with his family in Gaza City.

"We returned because we categorically reject displacement," he said.

To Halasa, "they can do whatever they want to do, but we will remain steadfast in our homeland."

Gaza's north, which includes Gaza City, has been particularly hard hit by the fighting throughout the war and especially since Israel launched a major offensive in the area in October.

Many of those who have recently returned have found their homes in ruins, pitching tents by the rubble and staying there.

Like 36-year-old Badri Akram, all Palestinians AFP spoke to strongly rejected Trump's suggestions that they should leave Gaza.

"You see, my house was destroyed, but I can sleep on the rubble", said Akram, pointing to the ruins behind him.

Trump also floated the idea of creating "the Riviera of the Middle East" in a rebuilt Gaza, but for Palestinians, the most crucial part of his proposal had to do with their feared displacement.

Any attempts to force them out of 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 have been fighting displacement since 1948", said Minawi.

The UN's World Food Programme said that within just a few days, some 500,000 people had returned to Gaza's north.

On Wednesday, Gaza City's streets were again bustling with activity, with vendors lining the roads and cars driving around alongside pedestrians.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which is separated from Gaza by Israeli territory, Palestinians were equally outraged by talk of displacement.

"We will not leave our land even if they brought all the tanks in the world," said Umm Muhammad al-Baytar, a resident of Ramallah.

"Not even air strikes could force them to leave," the pensioner said of her compatriots in the Gaza Strip.