Trump hosted Netanyahu for dinner at the White House last night, but not much came out of it in terms of public statements. In comments to reporters afterwards, however, both indicated that displacement of the population of Gaza was on the agenda. Netanyahu claimed the United States and Israel were working with other countries that would give Palestinians a “better future,” suggesting that the residents of Gaza could move to neighboring nations, reported Reuters. “If people want to stay, they can stay, but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave,” Netanyahu offered. “We’re working with the United States very closely about finding countries that will seek to realize what they always say, that they want to give the Palestinians a better future. I think we’re getting close to finding several countries.”
Trump, who initially deferred to Netanyahu when asked about relocating Palestinians, claimed the countries around Israel were helping out. “We’ve had great cooperation from ... surrounding countries, great cooperation from every single one of them. So something good will happen,” Trump said.
In their public remarks, every single nation in the region has emphatically rejected the idea of accepting mass emigration of Palestinians from Gaza, insisting on a two-state solution and the right of Palestinians to have, and stay in, their homeland.
In the hours prior to Trump and Netanyahu’s remarks, reports emerged of Israeli plans to create what amounts to concentration camps in Gaza. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told reporters in a briefing yesterday that he had instructed the IDF and the ministry to bring forward a plan to establish a new “humanitarian city” in the southern Gaza Strip, on the ruins of Rafah. The idea of the humanitarian area, according to Katz, is to accommodate initially some 600,000 Palestinians who have been living in the Mawasi area on the coast after being displaced from elsewhere in the Strip, after screening them to ensure Hamas operatives are not entering, reported the Times of Israel. Once they enter, Palestinians will not be allowed to leave the zone, he said.
At roughly the same time, he reported on a plan, bearing the name of the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to build large-scale camps called “Humanitarian Transit Areas” inside—and possibly outside—Gaza to house the Palestinian population, outlining “a vision of replacing Hamas’ control over the population in Gaza.”
The $2 billion plan, created sometime after February 11, was submitted to the Trump administration, according to two sources, one of whom said it was recently discussed in the White House. According to Reuters, the plan describes the camps as “large-scale” and “voluntary” places where the Gazan population could “temporarily reside, deradicalize, reintegrate, and prepare to relocate if they wish to do so.”
