Gaza’s war-weary residents say they will not abandon their homeland despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest proposal—backed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—to offer Palestinians the option of resettling abroad.
“This is our land. Who would we leave it to?” asked Mansour Abu al-Khair, a 45-year-old technician surveying the ruins of his neighbourhood after nearly two years of war between Israel and Hamas. Similar feelings echoed across the enclave, where roughly 2.3 million people remain under bombardment, displaced and hungry.
On Monday, Trump welcomed Netanyahu to the White House and spoke of transforming Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East.” Netanyahu said Israel and the United States were “close” to lining up third countries that would “give Palestinians a better future,” though he added that anyone who wished to stay could do so.
Neighbouring Egypt and Jordan have already rejected earlier versions of the idea, which Palestinian leaders and human-rights groups brand “ethnic cleansing.” Saed, a 27-year-old Gaza resident uprooted multiple times since the conflict began in October 2023, called the notion “insulting”: “We have the right to travel, but forced displacement is off the table.”
The issue stirs deep historical trauma. Many Palestinians view any talk of relocation as a replay of the 1948 Nakba—the mass dispossession that accompanied Israel’s creation. Israel says it is fighting only to dismantle Hamas, which killed about 1,200 people and seized 251 hostages in its cross-border raid. Gaza’s health ministry says Israel’s campaign has since killed more than 57,000 Palestinians.
Polls show nearly half of Gaza’s residents would leave if conditions remain dire. A leaked proposal, seen by Reuters, sketches large “Humanitarian Transit Areas” inside—and potentially outside—Gaza to house evacuees. But even those desperate for normalcy balk at being pushed out for good.
“I will not leave Gaza,” said Abu Samir al-Faqaawe. “Our children who died, our families, our history—everything is here. Whether Trump or Netanyahu likes it or not, we are staying.”