the Palestinian enclave

Donald Trump’s statements on the Gaza Strip have not gone unnoticed: Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has already ordered the army to prepare for the “voluntary departure” of Gazans.

American control of the Gaza Strip, expulsion of Gazans to neighbouring countries and transformation of the Palestinian enclave into the “Riviera of the Middle East”: this seems to be the American President’s plan.

Even though the White House has since qualified these remarks, concern persists.

“What Trump is proposing is clearly catastrophic for Gaza, but it would also be destabilising for the countries in the region”, Hugh Lovatt, a researcher at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), tells Euronews

The US President has recently suggested on several occasions that 1.8 million Gazans could be moved to neighbouring countries.

This proposal eerily echoes the forced displacements that took place after the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 and 1967.

Breach of international law

“Imagine a million Gazans being moved to Egypt, to a country with limited economic possibilities, a country to which the inhabitants of Gaza themselves have few links, apart from the fact that they are neighbours. Do people really think that a million refugees from Gaza will stay in Egypt? No. Thousands of them, tens of thousands of people, will seek to improve their economic prospects further afield, including in Europe,” says Lovatt.

For many experts, this plan is also contrary to international law.

“Forced displacement and ethnic cleansing are not permitted under international law”, Michael Wahid Hanna, director of the US programme at the International Crisis Group, points out: “This will constitute a war crime. An international crime”.

Egypt and Jordan have already duly rejected the displacement of Gazans from the enclave.

‘We have to talk’

“It would be extremely controversial among the Arab peoples, who would see it as aiding and abetting the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land,” Wahid Hanna told Euronews.

“In the case of Egypt, for example, it would be extremely controversial within the military and security forces, who have long regarded the question of Gaza and the displacement of Gazans as a kind of red line”, he added.

Furthermore, this plan is “unrealistic” and “illusory”, according to Lovatt.

“We have to talk about President Trump’s plans because he is the American president and he can devote significant political and economic energy to them. But at the end of the day, it’s a distraction from the important work of securing and maintaining a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, stabilising Gaza, ending Hamas governance in a real and lasting way, and unlocking Israeli-Palestinian and regional peace”, argues the researcher.

The European Union has been relatively silent so far, confining itself to reiterating its support for a two-state solution and affirming that Gaza is an integral part of a future Palestinian state.