Israel begins preparations for Gaza exodus as Egypt lobbies against Trump plan

By SAMY MAGDY, Associated Press

CAIRO (AP) — Israel said connected Thursday it has begun preparations for the departure of ample numbers of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip successful enactment with President Donald Trump’s program for the territory. Officials meantime said Egypt has launched an diplomatic blitz down the scenes to effort and caput disconnected the plan.

The Trump medication has already dialed backmost aspects of the proposal aft it was widely rejected internationally, saying the relocation of Palestinians would beryllium temporary. U.S. officials person provided fewer details astir however oregon erstwhile the program would beryllium carried out.

In a societal media station connected Thursday, Trump said Israel would crook Gaza implicit to the United States aft the warfare and that nary U.S. soldiers would beryllium needed for his program to redevelop it.

A young Palestinian kid carries jerricans on the demolition caused by the Israeli aerial and crushed violative successful Jabaliya, Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

The Palestinians person vehemently rejected Trump’s proposal, fearing that Israel would ne'er let refugees to return. Egypt has warned that an expulsion of Palestinians would destabilize the portion and undermine its bid pact with Israel, a cornerstone of stableness and American power for decades.

Saudi Arabia, different cardinal U.S. ally, has besides rejected immoderate wide transportation of Palestinians and says it volition not normalize relations with Israel — a cardinal extremity of the Trump medication — without the instauration of a Palestinian authorities that includes Gaza.

Trump and Israeli officials person depicted the projected relocation from war-ravaged Gaza arsenic voluntary, but the Palestinians person universally expressed their determination to stay successful their homeland.

Trump and Israeli officials person not said however they would respond if Palestinians garbage to leave. But Human Rights Watch and different groups accidental the plan, if implemented, would magnitude to “ethnic cleansing,” the forcible relocation of the civilian colonisation of an taste radical from a geographic area.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said helium has ordered the subject to marque preparations to facilitate the emigration of ample numbers of Palestinians from Gaza done onshore crossings arsenic good arsenic “special arrangements for exit by oversea and air.”

There were nary contiguous signs of specified preparations connected the ground.

Egypt wages a behind-the-scenes campaign

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has not publically responded to Trump’s stunning connection that astir of Gaza’s colonisation of 2.3 cardinal Palestinians beryllium relocated and the United States instrumentality complaint of rebuilding the territory. Israel’s 15-month run against Hamas had reduced ample parts of Gaza to rubble earlier a fragile ceasefire took clasp past month.

But Egyptian officials, speaking Wednesday connected information of anonymity to sermon the closed-door talks, said Cairo has made wide to the Trump medication and Israel that it volition defy immoderate specified proposal, and that the bid woody with Israel — which has stood for astir fractional a period — is astatine risk.

One authoritative said the connection has been delivered to the Pentagon, the State Department and members of the U.S. Congress. A 2nd authoritative said it has besides been conveyed to Israel and its Western European allies, including Britain, France and Germany.

A Western diplomat successful Cairo, besides speaking anonymously due to the fact that the discussions person not been made public, confirmed receiving the connection from Egypt done aggregate channels. The diplomat said Egypt was precise superior and viewed the program arsenic a menace to its nationalist security.

The diplomat said Egypt rejected akin proposals from the Biden medication and European countries aboriginal successful the war, which was sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 violent onslaught into confederate Israel. The earlier proposals were broached privately, portion Trump announced his program astatine a White House property league alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Hamas has been designated arsenic a violent enactment by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

US officials standard backmost Trump’s proposal

Trump said helium wanted to “permanently” resettle astir of Gaza’s colonisation successful different countries and for the United States to instrumentality complaint of clearing debris and rebuilding Gaza arsenic a “Riviera of the Middle East” for each people. He did not regularisation retired the deployment of U.S. troops there.

U.S. officials later appeared to locomotion it back, saying the relocation of Palestinians would beryllium impermanent and that Trump had not committed to putting American boots connected the crushed oregon spending American taxation dollars successful Gaza.

The Egyptian officials said their authorities does not judge the Palestinians request to beryllium relocated for reconstruction to proceed and is committed to the instauration of a Palestinian authorities successful Gaza, the West Bank and eastbound Jerusalem, territories Israel seized successful the 1967 Mideast war.

Israel’s authorities is opposed to Palestinian statehood and has said it volition support open-ended information power implicit some Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Israel annexed eastbound Jerusalem successful a determination not recognized by astir of the planetary assemblage and considers the full metropolis its capital.

Last week, Egypt hosted a gathering of apical diplomats from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — which was the driving unit down the 2020 Abraham Accords Trump brokered with Israel. All 5 Arab nations rejected the transportation of Palestinians retired of Gaza oregon the West Bank.

In an editorial connected Thursday, Egypt’s main state-run daily, Al-Ahram, warned that “the Arab countries’ independence, their peoples’ unity and their territorial integrity are nether sedate threat.”

Associated Press writer Natalie Melzer successful Nahariya, Israel, contributed to this report. Follow AP’s warfare sum astatine https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Originally Published: February 6, 2025 astatine 10:02 AM EST