Egypt said Sunday that it has a “clear vision” regarding the reconstruction of the war-torn Gaza Strip without displacing Palestinians from the territory.
“The Egyptian efforts regarding Gaza are ongoing and will not stop with regard to implementing the specific requirements of the ceasefire agreement in its three stages,” Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told a news conference in Cairo with his Djiboutian counterpart Mahamoud Ali Youssouf.
“We have a clear vision for rebuilding the Gaza Strip without any citizen leaving his land,” he added.
Trump suggested last weekend that Palestinians in Gaza should be relocated to Egypt and Jordan, calling the enclave a “demolition site” after Israel’s war. His proposal, however, was vehemently rejected by Cairo and Amman.
A six-nation Arab ministerial meeting in Cairo on Saturday firmly rejected Palestinian displacement from Gaza and renewed calls for implementing a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Trump’s proposal came after a ceasefire agreement took effect in Gaza on Jan. 19, suspending Israel’s genocidal war that has killed nearly 47,500 people, most of them women and children, and injured over 111,000 since Oct. 7, 2023.
Red Sea
The top Egyptian diplomat said there is no justification for military escalation in the Red Sea after the Gaza ceasefire.
“We stress the need to enhance the security of the Red Sea and freedom of maritime navigation, and we reject any military presence of any country that does not border the Red Sea,” he added.
Tension has begun to ease in the Red Sea after the Gaza ceasefire deal. During the Gaza war, Yemen’s Houthi group carried out drone and missile attacks on Israeli cargo ships or ones linked with Tel Aviv in the Red Sea in a show of support for the Palestinian enclave.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi met early Sunday with the Djiboutian foreign minister to discuss bilateral cooperation and the latest developments in Somalia and the Red Sea region, the presidency said in a statement.
Tension escalated between Ethiopia and Somalia originated in January 2024, when Addis Ababa signed an agreement with Somalia’s breakaway region of Somaliland to use the Red Sea port of Berbera. Since then, Türkiye has actively mediated to ease tensions between the two nations.
Egypt and Ethiopia are already locked in a decade-long dispute over the construction of a dam project on the Nile River, which Cairo fears will drastically reduce its share from the Nile water. Ethiopia says that the dam is vital for its development process according to Anadolu.
The first batch of humanitarian aid, part of an air bridge that the Kingdom dispatched for Gaza earlier on Tuesday, arrived in the Strip later on the day.
The Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army (JAF) on Tuesday announced that the Kingdom launched an eight-day air bridge with 16 flights daily to send assistance to Gaza.
During a conference at the King Abdullah II Air Base of the Royal Jordanian Air Force, JAF Media Director Brig. Gen. Mustafa Hiari said that the air bridge ensures the delivery of critical relief supplies to inaccessible areas, preventing spoilage or damage, according to an army statement.
Hiari highlighted that JAF was the first to execute humanitarian airdrops into Gaza, achieving the third-largest modern logistical supply operation.
To date, JAF has carried out 125 Jordanian airdrops, facilitated 266 airdrops by allied forces, and dispatched 53 aircraft to Gaza through Egypt’s El Arish Airport, he noted.
Hiari stressed that JAF continues humanitarian initiatives through the field hospitals in northern and southern Gaza.
He said that the hospitals have treated more than 370,000 patients since the start of the Israeli war on the besieged Strip on October 7, 2023, and fitted 296 advanced prosthetics under the “Restoring Hope” initiative.
Hiari pointed out that JAF completed infrastructure for a new field hospital specialising in obstetrics and neonatal care, noting that the hospital is staffed with 82 personnel, including 55 from the Royal Medical Services.
Also speaking at the conference, Minister of Government Communication Mohammad Momani said that, under Royal directives, 16 military aircraft carrying relief, food and medical supplies, totalling 20 tonnes, were sent to Gaza via Qarara crossing in central Gaza for distribution in the north and south of the Strip, in coordination with the World Food Programme (WFP).
He added that this initiative is part of Jordan’s ongoing efforts, directed by His Majesty King Abdullah, to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.
He also noted that two planes carrying aid from Italy and contributions from Greece and Malaysia are part of the relief effort.
Momani highlighted that Jordan was among the first countries to send aid and break the blockade on Gaza.
The minister added that Jordan’s national security relies on “steadfast support” for Palestinians’ presence on their land and the rejection of Israeli displacement policies.
He underscored that this stance aligns with Jordan’s strategic interests and its unwavering national and humanitarian principles.
Momani reiterated that regional peace can only be achieved by recognising the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and the establishment of their independent state.
Also speaking at the conference, Secretary-General of the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organisation (JHCO) Hussein Shibli pointed out that Jordan had previously dispatched eight similar flights in late November, carrying seven tonnes of aid distributed by the WFP.
Shibli noted that 147 humanitarian convoys, comprising 5,569 trucks carrying around 82,000 tonnes of aid, have been sent to Gaza in cooperation with the JAF.
He stressed JHCO’s commitment to Royal directives, ensuring continued coordination with relevant sides to maintain the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza according to The Jordan Times.
As Jordan has only just recovered from the aggression on Gaza and has seen some relief along its northern borders, the issue of displacement has resurfaced once again. This time, it arises either from Gaza, exploiting the humanitarian and political catastrophe it faces, or from the occupied West Bank, where Netanyahu’s most right-wing government continues to escalate security and military tensions.
🇯🇴🇺🇸 Jordan rejects Trump's initiative to relocate Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring countries, — DW
"Jordan rejects any relocation of Palestinians, and our position is firm and unwavering," Foreign Minister said. pic.twitter.com/rRgggW8Owt
From the beginning of the aggression on Gaza, Jordan understood that the goal was to displace its people. Alongside its Egyptian brothers and other Arab and international parties, Jordan worked to confront this scheme. Jordan is fully aware that displacement is not just about relocating Gaza’s residents to another country; it is about dismantling the Palestinian cause and undermining its major pillars. Amman is cognizant that Israel seeks a Palestine without Palestinians and, through displacement, it seeks to destroy the prospects for a Palestinian state and the right of return.
Jordan, which has already received millions of Palestinians and millions of others due to the region’s endless crises and wars, has paid a heavy price in terms of its limited resources and political stability. Each wave of migration—most recently from Syria—has come at a significant cost. Jordan is aware that accepting any number of people from Gaza or elsewhere is no longer acceptable or tolerable, especially given the political implications for Jordan’s demographic composition, its national identity, and the Palestinian national identity.
Logic dictates that after all these wars and acts of aggression, the world should seek to resolve the Palestinian issue by granting Palestinians their rights on their national soil. It should not seek solutions to address Israel’s so-called security concerns by emptying Palestinian land of its people and displacing them to other countries.
Jordanians will not accept any solution at the expense of their national identity, homeland, and state. Those who truly seek peace must understand that the path to peace lies in granting Palestinians their rights on their land, not through displacement or the illusion of peace based on a scheme that can only be described as a liquidation of the Palestinian cause.
US President Donald Trump, Saturday, proposed relocating Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring countries like Egypt and Jordan. This is an unusual proposal that was opposed by the former administration of Joe Biden.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One towards Miami, the president said he raised the matter during a telephone call with King Abdullah II of Jordan, and he might talk with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday.
“I said to him (Jordan’s king) that I’d love you to take on more because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now and it’s a mess, it’s a real mess,” said Trump. “I’d like him (Jordan’s king) to take people”.
“I’d like Egypt to take people. I’m talking to Gen. Al Sisi tomorrow sometime I believe. I’d like Egypt to take people. And I’d like Jordan to take people,” Trump continued.
“You’re talking about a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing. You know over the centuries it’s had many, many conflicts. And I don’t know, something has to happen,” he added.
Describing Gaza as “a demolition site,” the US president said: “Almost everything is demolished and people are dying there. So l’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change.”
He added that the move “could be temporary or could be long-term.”
The Biden administration opposed relocating Gaza residents outside the enclave, advocating a return of Gazans to their homes in the aftermath of a potential peace and a two-state solution.
Israel’s genocidal war has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and injured over 111,000 since Oct. 7, 2023.
Since Jan. 19, a ceasefire is in place to bring respite to civilians in the Palestinian enclave, but Trump said last week he is not confident that the truce will hold.
“It’s not our war. It’s their war. I think they are very weakened on the other side,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I looked at a picture of Gaza. Gaza is like a massive demolition site. That place is. … It’s really got to be rebuilt in a different way,” he said.
“Gaza is interesting. It’s a phenomenal location on the sea, best weather, you know, everything’s good. It’s like some beautiful things could be done with it, but it’s very interesting, but some fantastic things could be done with Gaza,” Trump added according to Anadolu.
Nicknamed “the Prince of Shadows” Abdullah Barghouti is the Palestinian political prisoner with the most number of life sentences ever given to a single detainee.
A former leader of the Hamas’ al-Qassam brigade’s armed wing, in the West Bank, he now appears to be on the verge of release in the Hamas-Israel prisoner exchange.
Born in Kuwait in 1972, Abdullah Barghouti grew up outside of occupied Palestine, despite his family having originated from the village of Beit Rima, located near Ramallah. Barghouti attended school, up until high school in Kuwait.
Upon the eruption of the first Intifada in the occupied Palestinian territories, in 1987, Barghouti recounted in his memoir that the uprising had inspired him to seek revenge against the occupiers, especially after Israeli forces murdered one of his cousins and youngest uncle. “Simply put, they threw stones at the Zionist occupation forces that were wreaking havoc, so they were shot and martyred” he stated.
During the first Gulf War (1990-1991), Abdullah Barghouti was reportedly arrested for around a month after being accused of participating in the fight against US forces, later being released after the war. Prior to this, Barghouti had decided to pursue the combat sport of Judo and was trained by a man named Munir Samik who was also Palestinian.
Samik once asked Barghouti: “Aren’t you Palestinian? Don’t you want to liberate your country? If you use it against all those who occupied your homeland, there in Palestine, use what you learned here.” Inspired to make himself physically strong and capable of fighting Israel, he then began training in the use of firearms and explosives in the Kuwaiti desert. During the war, Barghouti’s family was forced to flee to Jordan.
When he traveled to live in Amman, Jordan, he would finish high school there but due to his family being too poor to afford University, so he would borrow money from a relative in order to open up a mechanic shop, continuing to practice Judo as a hobby. However, he wasn’t able to earn enough money to keep his business afloat and pay back his relatives and decided to move abroad in order to pursue higher education instead.
A friend of Barghouti had recommended he apply for a visa program to travel to South Korea, which ended up leading him there in pursuit of an education. When he arrived, he had no money and little but the clothes on his back.
Barghouti walked from the airport to a location that was supposed to help him secure an education; his journey would take three days during which he went without eating. He recalled that he drank water from public parks until reaching the address he had been given, finding out that it was a wood-cutting factory.
So, without any money or prospects, he ended up working at the factory for 45 days without having money to buy food, eating only from what the factory would supply him.
In 1991, after a few months in the wood-cutting factory, he moved to work in a mechanical factory and studied in parallel with his work at an engineering institute, specializing in electromechanics. This was also the time during which he would meet his wife, who was of Korean origin.
However, his passion for seeking the liberation of Palestine through armed struggle would not perish while he lived in South Korea, as he would routinely go deep into the forest and practice making improvised explosive devices and refining his craft. In 1998 he would then return to Amman with his wife, before deciding to divorce her due to his desire to have children.
Around this time he started becoming more religious, moved to Jerusalem and then the West Bank, married a Palestinian wife, and settled down in his family’s village of Beit Rima. He later had two daughters, Safaa and Tala, and a son called Osama.
It just so happened that in 2001, Beit Rima would be the first area in the West Bank that would experience a full-scale military invasion during the Second Intifada. Israeli forces deployed tanks, attack helicopters, and a huge military force to the village.
Abdullah Barghouti joined the Qassam Brigades in 2001, seeking out his cousin Bilal Barghouti in order to share his expertise in bomb-making.
After his cousin, who is currently serving 16 life sentences in Israeli military prison, witnessed how skilled he was at engineering explosives, he told his superiors in the Hamas military wing and Abdullah Barghouti would begin military training in the Nablus area, going on to become a commander of the Qassam Brigades in the West Bank.
This entire time, almost nobody close to him knew of his secret ambition to seek revenge against Israel and his bomb-making skills. He would later go on to participate in the manufacturing of explosives that killed 66 Israelis and injured over 500.
When he was eventually tracked down in 2003 and arrested by the Israeli occupation forces, he was interrogated and tortured for over five months, before being handed 67 life sentences, amounting to 5,200 years in prison. In later interviews recorded with Barghouti from inside an Israeli prison, he would confidently state that one day interviewers would come to meet him while he sits inside a hot tub in Ramallah.
If he is to be released during the upcoming Hamas-Israel prisoner exchange, it is likely that Israel will request his deportation outside of occupied Palestine. It is speculated that Barghouti could be useful to Hamas in developing its influence in the armed struggle inside the West Bank, which is currently dominated by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Fatah-aligned fighters.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
– Robert Inlakesh is a journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. He focuses on the Middle East, specializing in Palestine. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.
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