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PALESTINIANS IN GAZA ON TRUMP’S PLAN: ‘WE WOULD RATHER DIE HERE
THAN LEAVE’  
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Malak A Tantesh in Gaza and Emma Graham-Harrison in Jerusalem
February 5, 2025
The Guardian
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_ The US president’s idea to take over the territory and his claims
Palestinians were keen to move were met with anger – and a
determination to stay _

Palestinians used every form of transport – or none – to make
their way home, Photograph: Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters

 

In Gaza, Donald Trump’s plan for the United States to take over the
territory was met with anger and disbelief by Palestinians sheltering
in the ruins of their houses, or crammed into makeshift camps.

They know better than anyone the terrible impact of 15 months of
Israeli attacks that have reduced so much of Gaza
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Abu Firas, 52, lives in a tent on the coast that Trump claims he will
remake into the “Riviera of the Middle East”. His home in eastern
Khan Younis has been destroyed, and he lost 80 relatives.

He wants help rebuilding, not a ticket out of the place he loves.
“We would rather die here than leave this land,” he told the
Guardian. “No amount of money in the world can replace your
homeland.”

Trump suggested Palestinians were keen to leave a place he described
as “unlucky” and a “symbol of death and destruction”. It was a
vision of Gaza apparently formed without consulting the people who
live there.

Even before the war, life in Gaza was difficult, with an economy
stifled by an Israeli blockade, political repression under Hamas’s
hardline rule, and overcrowding in one of the most densely populated
places on Earth.

[People walk along a coastal path as the sun sets in Gaza]

The people of Gaza say they want help rebuilding, not a way out of
their homeland. Photograph: APAImages/Rex/Shutterstock

But residents were proud of a history stretching back millennia, their
spirit of optimism even in difficult times, their commitment to
education at more than a dozen universities and higher education
institutes. They loved the beaches that also caught Trump’s eye,
Gaza’s sunny climate, and enjoyed relaxing in its orchards,
restaurants and cafes.

Last week thousands trekked back to homes in the north after Israel
lifted controls on movement across the strip
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Many wept with joy when they arrived, even when they found only piles
of rubble.

As he made the long trek home, Ramz, a 50-year-old father of four,
said:“No matter where a person moves or how much they try to live in
beautiful cities, they will never find peace except in their own city
and land.

“In the end, despite all this destruction we will stay here on our
land to live and die with dignity.”

In Gaza, people’s affection for the place they were born, raised
children and buried loved ones is often reinforced by a political
commitment to staying on land envisaged as part of a Palestinian
state.

Trump’s proposal for a Gaza largely empty of Palestinians is not a
novel one, although it has never been made by a US president before.
For decades Israeli politicians and officials have debated
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Gaza’s residents by force, or using economic incentives to encourage
mass migration.

Walid al-Munayya, who was displaced six times in the war, said: “We
have a famous saying: ‘He who leaves his home, loses his dignity’.
We are a resilient people, and this will not happen, even in Trump’s
dreams. We will stay here and not give up an inch of our land.”

['This is our land': Palestinians reject Trump's plan for US to 'take
over' Gaza - video]

'This is our land': Palestinians reject Trump's plan for US to 'take
over' Gaza 

Many families moved to Gaza as refugees in the Nakba, or catastrophe,
of 1948, in which about 700,000 Palestinians were expelled after the
creation of Israel. That history means many are sceptical of any
displacement.

During the war many in Gaza feared that Israel’s repeated orders for
civilians to leave the north of the strip could be a prelude to
settling or annexing the land.

Some who stayed on were too sick or disabled to travel, but others
were determined to stay on their land, even as a blockade within a
blockade reduced food supplies more than in the south.

There would be no less scepticism about a US request for Palestinians
to leave before bringing about a rebuild, despite Trump’s claim that
some Palestinians might be allowed to return to the new
“international” Gaza.

The survival of Hamas as a fighting force, despite the Israeli
military’s scorched earth tactics, should also serve as a warning to
Trump if he is serious about sending in US troops, Firas said.
“[Israel] bombed Gaza with all kinds of bombs and missiles. Despite
all this, they couldn’t control Gaza. So how can they force us to
leave?” he said. “What more can they do to us?”

[Trump announces US plan to 'own' and develop the Gaza strip –
video]

Trump announces US plan to 'own' and develop the Gaza strip 

Hamas’s military capacity has been badly degraded, but once the
ceasefire was declared dozens of fighters emerged into the streets to
manage hostage releases, manage the migration north, and claim a form
of victory in survival.

Any US military mission would face the same guerrilla attacks that
killed and injured so many Israeli troops in Gaza, even months into
the war.

Munayya called on Trump to abandon his real estate dreams and instead
relaunch a proposal US presidents have chased for decades. “I
propose a solution for the Gaza issue: separate the two states. Each
should live in peace and separately. The Israelis should have their
land, and the Palestinians should have their land.”

_Malak A Tantesh is a reporter based in Gaza.  Emma Graham-Harrison
is the Guardian's senior international affairs correspondent._

* Gaza
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* Palestinians
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* The Return
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