CAIRO: A senior Hamas official on Monday called on supporters across the world to pick up arms and fight US President Donald Trump’s plan to displace more than two million Gazans to neighbouring countries such as Egypt and Jordan.
“In the face of this sinister plan — one that combines massacres with starvation — anyone who can bear arms, anywhere in the world, must take action,” Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement.
“Do not withhold an explosive, a bullet, a knife, or a stone. Let everyone break their silence.”
The call comes a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered to let Hamas leaders leave Gaza but demanded that the Palestinian group disarm in the final stages of the war in Gaza.
Hamas has expressed a willingness to relinquish Gaza’s administration, but has warned its weapons are a “red line.”
Netanyahu said Israel was working toward a plan proposed by Trump to displace Gazans to other countries.
He stated that after the war, Israel would maintain overall security in Gaza and “enable the implementation of the Trump plan,” which initially proposed the mass displacement of all 2.4 million residents of the Palestinian territory, framing it as a “voluntary migration plan.”
In January, Trump triggered shock when he presented his plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza and suggested that the US would take over the territory after the war while pressuring Egypt and Jordan to accept displaced Palestinians.
However, both countries, along with other Arab allies, international governments, and the Palestinians themselves, firmly rejected the idea.
Trump later appeared to backtrack on the proposal, clarifying that he was “not forcing” his widely criticised plan.
Later, the Republican president conceded that the leaders of Jordan and Egypt had rejected the plan, calling the displacement of Palestinians against their will unjust.
“I was a little surprised they’d say that, but they did,” Trump told Fox News Radio’s “The Brian Kilmeade Show,” adding that the United States was paying those countries “billions of dollars a year” in aid.
“The way to do it is my plan. I think that’s a plan that really works, but I’m not forcing it,” Trump said. “I’m just gonna sit back and recommend it.”
“Nobody’s expelling any Palestinians,” Trump said at the White House in mid-March, remarks welcomed by Egypt, Jordan and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
Arab nations have since come up with an alternative plan for rebuilding the Gaza Strip without relocating its people, which would take place under the future reconstruct the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.
For Palestinians, any attempts to force them out of Gaza would evoke dark memories of what the Arab world calls the “Nakba,” or catastrophe — the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel’s creation in 1948.
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz in February said that a special agency would be established for the “voluntary departure” of Gazans.
Israel resumed intense bombing of Gaza on March 18 and then launched a new ground offensive, ending a nearly two-month ceasefire in the war with Hamas.
According Gaza health ministry Israel’s relentless bombardment has killed at least 50,357 people in Gaza, the majority of them civilians.
