Middle East: Israel seeks plan to let Palestinians exit Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who appeared for a photo-op with US senators at the Capitol, was asked if US troops were needed in Gaza for US President Donald Trump's plan to "take over" the Gaza Strip.

He replied, "No," before press aides cleared journalists from the room.

Earlier, Trump doubled down on his highly controversial plan to "take over" Gaza, seemingly giving more details.

"The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting," the US president said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

Israel is following in the footsteps of Donald Trump and withdrawing from the United Nations Human Rights Council, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar announced on Thursday.

"The decision was reached in light of the ongoing and unrelenting institutional bias against Israel in the Human Rights Council, which has been persistent since its inception in 2006," he said in a letter to UNHRC President Jürg Lauber that he posted on the social media platform X.

Saar said, "Israel will no longer tolerate the Council's blatant antisemitism." He cites the council standing agenda item 7, which examines the Human Rights Situation in Palestine and Other Occupied Arab Territories, and the commission of inquiry to investigate the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.

"These said mechanisms have been so emboldened, that they have taken to advancing antisemitic rhetoric, and altogether denying [Israel] the right to exist.

Such accusations are often leveled against organizations which have in the past criticized Israeli actions in the Gaza Strip or the occupied West Bank, including UN bodies.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian Territories warned that Israel's withdrawal was "extremely serious."

"It shows the hubris and the lack of realization of what they have done. They insist in self-righteousness, that they have nothing to be held accountable for, and they are proving it to the entire international community," she told the Reuters news agency.

Amid the criticism and condemnation, Donald Trump doubled down on Thursday on his highly controversial plan to "take over" Gaza, seemingly giving more details.

"The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting," the US president said in a post on his Truth Social platform, coinciding with instructions from Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz to the military to facilitate the departure of Palestinians who wish to leave from Gaza.

Trump added that by the time the US takes over Gaza, the Palestinians would have been "resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region."

"They would actually have a chance to be happy, safe, and free," said Trump, who since taking office, has floated the idea of neighbors Egypt and Jordan taking in the Palestinians in Gaza. Cairo, Amman and the Arab League have flat out rejected the proposal.

Trump said US development teams from all over the world would then "slowly and carefully begin the construction of what would become one of the greatest and most spectacular developments of its kind on Earth."

"No soldiers from the US would be needed!" Trump said, without explaining how he would secure American control of Gaza.

An American presence in Gaza would not only trigger backlash from other countries in the region and the wider Islamic world, but it could also spark security concerns from terrorist groups angered by the US occupation.

"Stability for the region would reign!!!" Trump added. 

Palestinians in Gaza have largely rejected the idea of voluntarily leaving the enclave, and the Palestinian Authority based in the occupied West Bank has widely condemned Trump's plan.

The announcement by President Donald Trump that the US will "take over" Gaza means the two-state solution is now "dead," as it has been for a while, according to Joost Hiltermann, director of the International Crisis Group's Middle East and North Africa program in Cairo.

Speaking with DW on Thursday, Hiltermann described the current state of the two-state solution as "on life-saving aid."

"To bring it back onto the international radar is absolutely critical, and yet we should be skeptical about what is really achievable at this point, given the extent of the Israeli settlement enterprise, especially in the West Bank," he said.

Hiltermann noted, however, that Trump's plan and the global opposition it has received has "done something to reawaken" the desire to discuss the two-state solution.

Addressing Trump's Gaza plan, Hiltermann described it as "really not implementable," stressing that it is "imposed" on the Palestinians in Gaza and not voluntary.

"I think it's very indicative that Palestinians in Gaza do not want to leave their land. And they certainly don't want to be given a so-called voluntary choice to stay or to leave. They feel they are being forced to leave," he said.

The program director also cautioned against describing the potential departure of Palestinians from Gaza as "temporary."

"When you say temporary also you have to keep in mind that the word temporary for Palestinians is a highly loaded word. They fear that the temporary becomes the permanent."

Hiltermann stressed that Trump's words were "very dangerous words, very dangerous rhetoric coming from the White House."

The memory of the "Nakba" (Arabic for "catastrophe") is still very much present among Palestinians and Arabs. It refers to the forced displacement or fleeing of some 700,000 Palestinians before and during the Arab-Israeli war of 1948 that followed Israel's establishment.

The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) organization has released a report on the ailing health care system in the occupied West Bank since October 2023, saying it has been in "a state of perpetual emergency."

The report listed the "dramatic escalation in violence" which the territory has seen in more than 15 months, since the Hamas-led October 7 terror attacks on southern Israel and the subsequent Israel military operations in Gaza.

"Since October 7, 2023, the West Bank has seen a dramatic escalation in violence, marked by prolonged Israeli military incursions and stricter movement restrictions," it said.

The violence has "severely hindered access to essential services, particularly healthcare, exacerbating already dire living conditions for many Palestinians."

The report referred to "a pattern of systematic interference by Israeli forces and settlers in emergency healthcare delivery." 

"The already-strained Palestinian healthcare system in the West Bank has been further weakened since October 2023 and is facing significant budget constraints," it said.

MSF also referred to shortages in essential medications, adding that health workers have not been paid in a year, noting that most medical facilities "are running at significantly reduced levels."

"Access to healthcare is severely impeded by a sprawling system of checkpoints and roadblocks that obstruct ambulance movements, compounded by the escalation of violent military raids involving the use of disproportionate tactics," MSF said.

Since October 2023, at least 884 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian health authorities. The authorities do not differentiate between civilians and militants in their tolls.

Official Israeli figures, meanwhile, suggest that at least 32 Israelis have been killed during the same period, in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank.

Since a ceasefire came into effect in the Gaza Strip over two weeks ago, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has transferred more than 10,000 trucks into the enclave.

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said on X on Thursday that he was "about to cross into northern Gaza with a convoy of aid."

"We’ve moved over 10,000 trucks in the two weeks since the ceasefire, a massive surge," Fletcher added, thanking those who had helped the trucks get through.

The aid trucks are carrying "vital, lifesaving food, medicine, and tents."

Beijing has expressed its rejection of the forced transfer of Palestinians living in Gaza.

"Gaza is the Gaza of Palestinians, not a political bargaining chip, let alone the target of a law of the jungle," China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a regular press briefing. 

He added that Beijing firmly supports the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people.

Iran's Foreign Ministry rejected on Thursday Trump's plan to take over Gaza and "forcibly displace" its Palestinian residents.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Bagahei said Tehran considered the plan a continuation of Israel's "targeted plan to completely annihilate the Palestinian nation," stressing that such a proposal was "categorically rejected and condemned." 

Baqaei described Trump's plan as "an unprecedented attack on the fundamental principles and foundations of international law and the United Nations Charter."

He called on the international community to recognize Palestinians' right to self-determination and to liberate them from "occupation and apartheid."

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has ordered the Israeli military to come up with a plan that would allow Palestinians to leave Gaza, following US President Donald Trump's highly controversial statements on taking over the enclave.

Trump on Tuesday shocked the world when he said in a press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: "The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it, too. We'll own it."

On Thursday, Katz welcomed Trump's plan as "bold."

"Gaza residents should be allowed the freedom to leave and emigrate, as is the norm around the world," Katz was quoted as saying. "I have instructed the [army] to prepare a plan that would allow any Gaza resident who wishes to leave to do so, to any country willing to accept them."

Katz added in a statement on X that his plan would allow Palestinians to leave the enclave "through land crossings, as well as special arrangements for departure by sea and air."

Katz said the countries which had opposed Israel's military operations in Gaza should take in the Palestinians who leave the enclave.

"Countries like Spain, Ireland, Norway, and others, which have levelled accusations and false claims against Israel over its actions in Gaza, are legally obligated to allow any Gaza resident to enter their territories," he said.

Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares was quick to reject the suggestion.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, has hailed Trump's statements, calling them "the first good idea that I've heard" in an interview with Fox News.

"It's a remarkable idea, and I think it should be really pursued, examined, pursued and done, because I think it will create a different future for everyone," he said.

The Israeli prime minister nevertheless said he did not believe Trump had suggested sending US troops to fight Hamas in Gaza, or that the US would finance rebuilding the Strip.

Apart from Israel, Trump's statements sent shock waves worldwide, prompting rejection from several world leaders and condemnation from regional allies, including Saudi Arabia.

Trump's Gaza plan, where he said "will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it, too," has sent shock waves worldwide, inviting backlash from Palestinians, Arab leaders and beyond.

"If we can get a beautiful area to resettle people, permanently, in nice homes where they can be happy and not be shot and not be killed and not be knifed to death like what's happening in Gaza," Trump said during the Tuesday press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump also said the region "should not go through a process of rebuilding and occupation by the same people that have [...] lived there and died there and lived a miserable existence there."

Later on Wednesday, the White House and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to try to alter the narrative after the backlash, which even came from some members of Trump's own Republican Party.

During a media briefing at the White House, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump "has made it clear that they need to be temporarily relocated out of Gaza," contradicting what Trump said earlier.

Here's the latest coverage from DW on how the Middle East and the world is reacting to President Donald Trump's call for the US to "take over" the Gaza Strip.

World leaders have continued to condemn the comments, as the White House appeared to roll back the proposal on Wednesday.

This blog will also cover latest events in other parts of the region, such as Iran responding to Trump's reinvigorated "maximum pressure" campaign or the latest developments in Syria after the ouster of Bashar Assad.