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Thousands of displaced Gazans return to the north as Trump doubles down on ‘ethnic cleansing’ plan.
Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians in Gaza are continuing to move back to the north following Israel’s opening of the Netzarim Corridor on Monday.
Gaza’s government media office said that around 300,000 people returned to northern Gaza on Monday, many of them having been displaced from their homes for more than a year due to Israel’s bombardment.
This came as US president Donald Trump doubled down on his plan to forcibly expel Gaza’s population, reiterating calls for Egypt and Jordan to take in the 2.2 million Palestinians living in the territory.
The Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), released a Telegram video on Monday of Israeli hostage Arbel Yehud, who is held by the group in Gaza.
Yahud said she had recorded her message on 25 January, and that she had been well and hoped to return to Israel like other hostages.
The hostage said she had served in the Israeli army for two years starting in October 2013, and cited her ID and military number, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office had described her in its statements as “a civilian”.
She urged Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump to “do their best to guarantee the continuation of the ceasefire as planned until all those kidnapped [from Israel], and the Palestinian prisoners can return back home safely”.
The Times of Israel reported that she was due to be released over the past weekend, but rearrangements resulted in the expected release date moving to 30 January.
An Israeli airstrike in central Gaza killed one civilian and injured several others on Monday night, according to local reports.
Eyewitnesses said the strike targeted a bulldozer that was trying to free a trapped vehicle in Al-Nuseirat refugee camp, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
US President Donald Trump on Monday renewed calls on Monday for Egypt and Jordan to take in Gaza’s 2.2 million population, a plan condemned around the world as an attempt at ethnically cleansing the territory of Palestinians.
The president on Saturday floated the idea to “clean out” Gaza after more than 15 months of war between Hamas and Israel, which he said had reduced the Palestinian territory to a “demolition site.”
Asked about those comments, Trump told reporters Monday evening on Air Force One he would “like to get them living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence so much”.
Trump has held talks in recent days with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who have historically opposed displacing Palestinians.
“I wish he would take some,” Trump said of al-Sisi. “We helped them a lot, and I’m sure he’d help us.”
“As they say, it’s a rough neighborhood, but I think he would do it, and I think the king of Jordan would do it too,” he added.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians returned to northern Gaza on Monday after Israel opened the Netzarim Corridor as agreed under its ceasefire deal with Hamas, according to the Gaza government media office.
“More than 300,000 displaced people from the southern and central Gaza governorates returned to Gaza and Northern governorates today via the Rashid (west) and Salah al-Din (east) streets, after 470 days,” it said in a statement Monday.
