Israeli PM Netanyahu is in Washington. US President Trump is looking for new approaches to solve the Gaza problem/crisis. One part inctludes resettling people from the overcrowded conditions in the Gaza strip. The Arab side is not happy with this. Saudi Arabia was very quick to reiterate that any deal with Israel must include a Palestinian state. France 24 TV aired stories on how Gazans are suffering, and a pro-Palestinian “expert” likened resettlement to “ethnic cleansing”.
I’m not surprised by this. Any action that results in removing Palestinian refugees from the control of UNRWA will also deprive the Arabs of a captive population that the Arab side has been holding for decades in order to use as a political weapon. If the people are resettled, rather than repatriated to their former homes (most of which no longer exist) then one of the major points of conflict between Israel and the Palestinians disappears. I may have mentioned before that refugees from UNRWA camps in Syria who fled the Syrian Civil War did not want to be identified as ‘Palestinian Refugees’ in order to escape from their enforced captivity. One of the reasons the conflict has gone on for so long is Arab insistence on holding UNRWA defined refugees hostage, no matter where their original roots may have been. (A VERY large percentage of the original UNRWA refugees came from families that moved to British controlled Palestine from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and Jordan. Those same countries are now refusing to take the descendants back.).
So far as I am aware, there has been a dearth of offers of funds to rebuild Gaza. This has been enough for some observers in Israel to identify a “panic” trend in the current Hamas leadership. Israel has expelled UNRWA. The US and others have halted funding of UNRWA. That certainly caused a panic in UNRWA, if not inside Hamas. Hamas and Hezbollah urged many current refugees who fled their homes because of the war to return. Doing so outside the guidelines of the truce is actually a violation of the terms agreed to on both the Northern and southern Israeli military positions. The international media reports when some of those ‘returning refugees’ are injured by IDF fire. They are not so quick to report when large numbers of them discover the place they returned to is a ruin without water, electricity, or employment. Many try to go back to refugee tent camps. Often, they are unable to do so. Guess why.
Wetherhorn 