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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 to rubble.
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.
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. 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 expelling 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.”
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?”
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.”
