United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned parties involved in the ongoing Gaza conflict to “avoid any form of ethnic cleansing” on Wednesday, a barb his spokesman appeared to indicate was intended for President Donald Trump.
Trump shocked the Middle East by declaring on Tuesday evening that America would “take over the Gaza Strip,” a small slice of land in between Egypt and Israel currently controlled by the genocidal terrorist organization Hamas. Hamas has been in a formal state of war with Israel since October 7, 2023, when it invaded the country and massacred 1,200 random people, abducted dozens of others, and engaged in widespread atrocities including infanticide, gang rape, and the desecration of corpses.
Hamas has controlled Gaza since 2007. During that time, it enmeshed itself deep into the civilian infrastructure of the Strip, installing terrorist facilities in hospitals, schools, and residential areas. The strategy essentially forced Gazans into the position of human shields, as any attacks by Israel or other parties intended to neutralize Hamas’s ability to engage in terrorist activity had a heightened probability of causing civilian casualties.
The Hamas-Israel war is in a tentative state of ceasefire following negotiations in January. Gaza itself, already in a poor state after nearly two decades of Hamas rule, has suffered tremendous damage, however, which Trump suggested on Tuesday was too pervasive to allowed the continued presence of civilians in Gaza until it was fully reconstructed.
“The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too,” Trump told reporters. “We’ll love it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous bombs and other weapons on the site … and get rid of the destroyed buildings [and] create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing.”
“I think you’ll make [Gaza] into an international. unbelievable place. I think the potential in the Gaza Strip is unbelievable,” he continued. “And I think the entire world, representatives from all over the world will be there.”
Indirectly addressing those remarks, Guterres warned involved parties at a meeting addressing Palestinian issues on Wednesday that any attempted solutions should “not make the problem worse.”
“It is vital to stay true to the bedrock of international law. It is essential to avoid any form of ethnic cleansing,” Guterres asserted. “Any durable peace will require tangible, irreversible and permanent progress toward the two-State solution, an end to the occupation, and the establishment of an independent Palestinian State, with Gaza as an integral part.”
Guterres did not mention Trump by name or his Gaza plan, though many observers assumed he intended to directly allude to it. Guterres’ spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, had answered a question about the Trump plan directly before his remarks in which he said that, to Guterres, “any forced displacement of people is tantamount to ethnic cleansing.”
Elsewhere in his remarks, Guterres repeated calls for the establishment of a universally recognized state of “Palestine,” including Gaza, but did not clarify if that would include political participation by Hamas. He did offer an offhand condemnation of the October 7 attacks.
Trump’s call for the United States to rebuild Gaza followed remarks he made in January in which he asserted that he did not believe it was possible for civilians to continue to live in Gaza in its current state. He suggested during remarks with reporters that month that he was hoping neighboring Egypt and Jordan would “take people” to live in Gaza during the reconstruction process.
“I’d like Egypt to take people and I’d like Jordan to take people. You’re talking about, probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” Trump said, describing Gaza as “literally a demolition site.”
“I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different location, where they can maybe live in peace. … Could be temporary, could be long-term,” he added.
The governments of Jordan and Egypt have vocally claimed to support Palestinians and their rights, but adamantly refused to take in a single Palestinian refugee, claiming that offering Palestinians an escape from living under Hamas would undermine the creation of a Palestinian state. Both Amman and Cairo responded negatively to Trump’s call for them to help Palestinians in January.
“All talk about an alternative homeland for Palestinians is rejected. We will not accept it and will continue to confront it,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi asserted. “Jordan is for Jordanians.”
The Egyptian foreign ministry, in turn, “underscored its categorical rejection of any actions that undermine these rights, including settlement expansion, annexation of land, or the displacement of Palestinians—whether through temporary or permanent means.”
The comments Trump made this week about an American takeover of Gaza were in the context of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting Washington. The Israeli government appears to support the plan and announced on Thursday that it had ordered the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), active in Gaza as part of the war against Hamas, to allow all Palestinians seeking to leave Gaza to do so.
“The plan will include exit options via land crossings, as well as special arrangements for departure by sea and air,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced. “Countries such as Spain, Ireland, Norway, and others, which have falsely accused Israel over its actions in Gaza, are legally obligated to allow Gazans to enter their territory.”
“The people of Gaza should have the right to freedom of movement and migration, as is customary everywhere in the world,” he concluded in his message announcing the policy.
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