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Tag: Palestinian

Israel releases Palestinian prisoners linked to deadly attacks on civilians

Palestinians linked to suicide bombings and attempted murders are among the 369 released Saturday by Israel in its latest exchange for hostages captured by Hamas.

Thirty-six of the detainees were serving out life sentences in Israeli prisons, but only 12 of them were allowed to return to their homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The other 24 are being sent to exile.

Those released Saturday were wearing white sweatshirts given to them by the Israeli Prison Service upon their release, emblazoned with a Star of David, the Prison Service logo and the phrase “Never forgive, never forget” written in Arabic on the front and back, according to the Associated Press. A video later posted on X purportedly showed those sweatshirts being burned.

Among those that returned to the West Bank were Ibrahim and Musa Sarahneh, who served more than 22 years in prison for their involvement in suicide bombings that killed a number of Israelis during the second intifada, a Palestinian uprising against Israel in the early 2000s.

AMERICAN-ISRAELI HOSTAGE RELEASED BY HAMAS EMBRACES HIS WIFE, FAMILY AFTER BEING APART FOR NEARLY 500 DAYS

Ahmed Barghouti, right, and his fiancé await his sentencing in a military court near Ramallah in the West Bank on July 30, 2003. He ultimately received 13 life sentences for dispatching gunmen who killed 12 Israelis during the second intifada. Barghouti was among the Palestinian prisoners released by Israel on Saturday, Feb. 15. (Reuters/Gil Cohen Magen/JDP)

Their other brother, Khalil Sarahneh, who was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to life in 2002, was sent to Egypt.

Hassan Aweis, who also was sentenced to life in 2002 on charges of voluntary manslaughter, planting an explosive device and attempted murder, according to Israel’s Justice Ministry, was among the few released prisoners welcomed by joyous crowds in Ramallah.

He was involved in planning attacks during the second intifada for the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the AP reported.

The group, which is designated by the U.S. as a foreign terrorist organization, was “formed in late 2000 during the second intifada as a militant wing of the West Bank’s Fatah political faction” and “seeks to drive Israeli military forces and settlers from Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip and establish a Palestinian state,” according to the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

A crowd burns the shirts worn by freed Palestinian prisoners in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Feb. 15. (AP/Abdel Kareem Hana)

HAMAS FREES 3 MORE HOSTAGES IN EXCHANGE FOR MORE THAN 300 PRISONERS

Hassan Aweis’s brother, Abdel Karim Aweis, whom Israel’s Justice Ministry said was sentenced to the equivalent of six life sentences for charges including throwing an explosive device, attempted murder and assault, was transferred to Egypt.

Ahmed Barghouti was also sent to Egypt on Saturday. Barghouti, who once was a commander in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, was given a life sentence for dispatching assailants and suicide bombers to carry out attacks that killed Israeli civilians during the second intifada.

Freed Palestinian prisoners are greeted by a crowd in Khan Younis as they arrive in the Gaza Strip after being released from an Israeli prison on Saturday, Feb. 15. (AP/Jehad Alshrafi)

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Barghouti is a close aide of Marwan Barghouti, a popular Fatah leader who remains in Israeli custody.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.

February 15, 2025
Israeli UN ambassador blasts Palestinian plan for Gaza: ‘Condemn Hamas’

Gazans respond to President Trump’s plan

The Center For Peace Communications spoke to Gazans about President Trump’s plan to relocate them to Egypt, Jordan and other countries. (Video courtesy: The Center For Peace Communications.)

EXCLUSIVE – Israel’s United Nations Ambassador Danny Danon is making the Jewish State’s disapproval of the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) “Relief and Early Recovery Plan” for Gaza crystal clear.

“It would be better if they dealt with terrorism in Judea and Samaria and condemn Hamas,” Ambassador Danon told Fox News Digital exclusively. Judea and Samaria are commonly referred to as the West Bank outside of Israel.

The PA’s plan, which was submitted to the U.N. Security Council for review, is broken up into three phases and will cost approximately $3.5 billion, according to documents obtained by Fox News Digital. It calls for an “international commitment to end the Israeli siege” in the Gaza Strip and “longer-term changes.”

“The end of Israel’s occupation of the State of Palestine and the achievement of the two-state solution, as outlined in numerous U.N. resolutions as well as the Arab Peace Initiative, is the only [way] forward for the State of Palestine and the State of Israel to live side by side in peace and security,” the PA’s plan reads.

TRUMP’S GAZA RELOCATION PROPOSAL SPARKS HEATED DEBATE AMONG PALESTINIANS: ‘NO LIFE LEFT HERE’

Israeli Permanent Member to the United Nations Danny Danon speaks during a session of the Security Council at the New York City headquarters. (Israel United Nations mission)

Israel’s Mission to the U.N. condemned the plan in a statement provided exclusively to Fox News Digital. Israel sees the plan presented by the PA as a way to “circumvent basic security requirements, including disarming Hamas.”

“While the Trump administration presents plans to change the reality in Gaza, including voluntarily transferring the residents of the Strip to other countries, the Palestinian Authority offers the U.N. an independent reconstruction plan – without any reference to the demilitarization of the Strip or Hamas’ responsibility for the destruction caused to it,” the statement from Israel’s Mission to the U.N. said.

In its plan, the PA puts the onus of ensuring the delivery of humanitarian supplies to Gaza on Israel, calling it the “occupying power.” However, in 2005, Israel unilaterally pulled out of the Gaza Strip, and Hamas took over after a 2006 election.

The physical restoration of Gaza is not the only focus of the PA’s plan; there is also the establishment of a “Governmental Emergency Operations Room” to oversee the plan, along with the controversial United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Destroyed buildings are pictured in the west of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on Feb. 11, 2025, amid the current ceasefire deal in the war between Israel and Hamas. (BASHAR TALEB/AFP via Getty Images)

EGYPT REPORTEDLY RELEASES DETAILS ON PLAN TO REBUILD GAZA; THERE’S NO MENTION OF ‘COOPERATION’ WITH THE US

Both the PA and UNRWA have been accused by Israel of perpetuating terrorism and violence.

“The Palestinian Authority, which has not yet condemned the atrocities of October 7, does not have the moral standing and executive ability to take part in these issues,” Ambassador Danon told Fox News Digital. “It would have been better if they had focused on stopping the rotten culture of incitement and demanded a stop to the ugly terrorism that has reared its head in Judea and Samaria.”

Upon reviewing the PA’s documents, Fox News Digital did not find any references to the Oct. 7 attacks, or the hostages taken into Gaza by force. The PA did, however, repeatedly accuse Israel of committing “genocidal aggression” in Gaza.

Hamas is not mentioned in the PA’s plan, which aligns with the two factions’ history of friction.

In February 2024, Russia attempted to launch peace talks between the PA and Hamas. Hamas urged Russia in October 2024 to push PA President Mahmoud Abbas to agree to a unity government for post-war Gaza, but so far nothing has come from those efforts.

While Israel’s Mission to the U.N. condemned the PA’s plan, it also admitted that the “chance that it will be overwhelmingly accepted remains an open question, especially in light of the Trump administration’s new policy on Gaza.”

President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu answer questions during a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 4, 2025 ( REUTERS/Leah Millis)

HAMAS SAYS IT WILL FREE MORE ISRAELI HOSTAGES ON SATURDAY AS ORIGINALLY PLANNED

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited D.C. earlier this month, President Trump said the U.S. would “take over” Gaza and relocate the Palestinians living there.

When recently asked about the president’s plan, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt ruled out the idea of putting American troops on the ground in Gaza. Instead, she said that President Trump would “strike a deal with our partners in the region.”

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Before he returned to the Oval Office, President Trump warned Hamas that there would be “hell to pay” if the hostages were not returned. Since then, several hostages have been released.

Saturday will see three more Israeli hostages released, including American Sagui Dekel Chen.

Rachel Wolf is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and FOX Business.

February 14, 2025
Israel slams Palestinian ‘deception scheme’ over claim it halted terror rewards program

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JERUSALEM—The president of the Palestinian Authority (PA) apparently capitulated to the Trump administration by claiming to scrap its long-standing program known as “pay for slay,” which provides payments to Palestinian terrorists and their families.

There are, however, conflicting reports about whether the PA ended the program or is trying to hoodwink the Trump administration.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein released a statement on X saying, “This is a new deception scheme by the Palestinian Authority, which intends to continue paying terrorists and their families through alternative payment channels.”

JUDGE LETS LAWSUIT CLAIMING BIDEN ADMIN KNEW US FUNDS WERE AIDING PALESTINIAN TERRORISTS MOVE FORWARD

On Monday, the Palestinian News and Information Agency (WAFA) reported that Mahmoud Abbas “issued a decree law revoking the articles contained in the laws and regulations related to the system of paying financial allowances to the families of prisoners, martyrs, and the wounded, in the Prisoners’ Law and the regulations issued by the Council of Ministers and the Palestine Liberation Organizations.”

WAFA noted that, regarding Abbas’ decree, “powers of all protection and social welfare programs in Palestine have been transferred to the Palestinian Economic Empowerment Foundation.” The Times of Israel reported that it had independently confirmed through sources that the revocation happened.

The pay for slay policy gained public attention when Taylor Force, a West Point graduate who served in Afghanistan and Iraq was savagely knifed to death by a Palestinian terrorist on March 8, 2016, while on a tour of Israel. President Donald Trump signed the Taylor Force Act into law in October 2018, after a vigorous campaign by Force’s parents, Robbi and Stuart Force.

“Abbas’ announcement seems to be a ruse aimed at pulling the wool over President Trump’s eyes,” Asher Fredman, a former Israeli government official who now is the executive director of the Misgav Institute for National Security, told Fox News Digital.

Flags are placed above the poster of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Nablus, Sept. 30, 2015. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

‘PAY FOR SLAY’: PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY MAY HAVE TO COMPENSATE FAMILIES OF HAMAS TERRORISTS, REPORT SAYS

“It appears that the terrorists and families of terrorists who received payments under the PA’s ‘pay for slay’ program will continue to receive the same payments, simply via a ‘foundation’ under the control of Abbas, rather than via a ministry under the control of Abbas.”

Fredman added, “It remains to be seen whether Abbas truly ends the pay for slay payments, as well as the virulent terror incitement and antisemitism in PA media, schools and summer camps.”

He said the PA announced that the payments to convicted terrorists are moving from the Ministry of Social Development to an independent Palestinian National Economic Empowerment Foundation. The head of the foundation’s board is the minister of social development. The foundation’s general director is also apparently an employee of the Ministry of Social Development, according to her LinkedIn profile. The linkage suggests that the foundation is closely tied to the PA.

Buses carrying Palestinian prisoners released from an Israeli prison as part of a ceasefire agreement are greeted in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told Fox News Digital, “We will rejoice when the PA stops financially rewarding Palestinian terrorists for murdering and injuring Israelis. Abbas’ statement makes no such commitment. Mr. Abbas, you either support and abet terrorism or oppose and help end it.”

The Times of Israel reported that PA officials informed the incoming Trump administration about its plan to pull the plug on the “pay to slay” program.

The thinking behind the PA’s decision is to curry favor with the Trump administration and avoid the strained relations that existed during the first Trump presidency. After Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city in 2017, Abbas boycotted the Trump administration.

The Times of Israel wrote that Monday’s “decree is Ramallah’s latest effort to improve ties with Washington and amounts to a major victory for Trump, who managed to secure a concession from the PA that repeated U.S. administrations had worked to bring about.”

A security prisoner with his hands tied at a prison in Giv’at Ze’ev, Aug 28, 2024. (Gideon Markowicz/TPS-IL)

The PA is based in Ramallah in the West Bank (known in Israel as the biblical region of Judea and Samaria).

Fox News Digital reported after a late 2023 deal involving the exchange of Palestinian terrorists imprisoned in Israel for the release of Israeli civilians held by Hamas in Gaza that the freed terrorists would receive monthly payments ranging from approximately $535 to $668 for Jerusalem residents.

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Jason Brodsky, the policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), summed up a recent trend of foreign leaders caving to the Trump administration. “I think it speaks to the Trump effect. Foreign leaders fear crossing the president because he knows how to engage in coercive diplomacy, and it produces outcomes which advance U.S. interests like this. Iran and other countries are watching very carefully how the president pressures other governments, and this will shape their decision-making. Thus far, Tehran has been more risk-averse since President Trump has been in office,” he told Fox News Digital.

Fox News Digital questions to the Palestinian Authority were not answered.

February 11, 2025
Egypt planning ’emergency’ Arab summit on Palestinian territory as Trump insists US ‘own’ Gaza

Egypt announced on Sunday it will host a summit of Arab leaders on Feb. 27 to discuss the future of the Gaza Strip after President Donald Trump signaled he wants the U.S. to own it.

Trump’s stunning declaration, made last week after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and reiterated over the weekend, rankled key U.S. allies in the Middle East, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

Egypt’s foreign ministry said the meeting in Cairo would include discussions on “the state of Palestine that asked to hold the summit in order to discuss new and dangerous developments for the Palestinian cause.”

Gaza’s Arab neighbors also dismissed Trump’s calls for them to take in the 1.8 million Palestinians still living in the Strip.

TRUMP’S GAZA ‘TAKEOVER’ RANKLES AMERICA FIRST CONSERVATIVES, ALLIES SUGGEST NEGOTIATOR-IN-CHIEF IS AT WORK

President Donald Trump, right, suggested U.S. owning Gaza after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz)

While many of Trump’s allies surmised the bold suggestion was a negotiating tactic, Trump reasserted to reporters Sunday night as he was leaving the Super Bowl that he was committed to “buying and owning” Gaza.

“I’m committed to buying and owning Gaza. As far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it. Other people may do it through our auspices. But we’re committed to owning it, taking it, and making sure that Hamas doesn’t move back,” he said.

“There’s nothing to move back in to. The place is a demolition site… The remainder will be demolished,” he added. “But we’ll make it into a very good site for future development by somebody.”

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, agreed to in January and partially brokered by Trump’s team, calls for a three- to five-year reconstruction phase, but Trump officials now insist it will take more like 10 to 15 years to rebuild the 139-square-mile territory that has been leveled by Israel’s offensive against Hamas.

Trump insisted Palestinians do not want to go back to Gaza.

“We’re going to make sure they live beautifully and in harmony and peace and that they’re not murdered,” he said. “They don’t want to go back to Gaza. They only go back because they have no alternative.”

TRUMP REMAINS COMMITTED TO US OWNING GAZA, SAYS MIDDLE EAST STATES COULD HELP REBUILD WAR-TORN AREA

“There’s nothing to move back into. The place is a demolition site,” President Donald Trump said of Gaza. (EYAD BABA/AFP via Getty Images)

Jordan’s King Abdullah II is due to meet with Trump at the White House on Tuesday, and Trump is expected to hold talks with Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the coming days.

The Palestinian terror group Hamas on Sunday called Trump’s latest comments “absurd.”

“Gaza is not a property that can be bought and sold, and it is an integral part of our occupied Palestinian land,” Izzat al-Risheq, a member of the Hamas political bureau, wrote on Telegram.

“Dealing with the Palestinian issue with the mentality of a real estate dealer is a recipe for failure,” al-Risheq added.

ARAB AMERICANS FOR TRUMP GROUP CHANGES NAME AFTER PRESIDENT’S GAZA TAKEOVER PROPOSAL

“Our Palestinian people will thwart all displacement and deportation plans. Gaza belongs to its people.”

Also on Sunday, Israel began withdrawing from the Netzarim corridor in Gaza as Palestinians return to their homes there – both sides honoring a tenuous ceasefire that is expected to return home Israel’s remaining hostages.

President Donald Trump promised that the U.S. would keep Hamas, pictured above, out of Gaza. (TPS-IL)

However, negotiations for the mid- and long-term future are ongoing. Hamas wants all Israeli troops out of Gaza, while Israel wants Hamas eliminated.

Last week, White House national security adviser Mike Waltz suggested Trump’s comments would turn up the heat on the Middle East to find its own solutions.

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“I think it’s going to bring the entire region to come with their own solutions,” Waltz mused about the comments on CBS on Wednesday.

Waltz went on, adding, “He’s not seeing any realistic solutions on how those miles and miles and miles of debris are going to be clear, how those essentially unexploded bombs are going to be removed, how these people are physically going to live there for at least a decade, if not longer, it’s going to take to do this.”

February 10, 2025
Saudi Arabia contradicts Trump, vows no ties with Israel without creation of Palestinian state

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Saudi Arabia said it would not establish ties with Israel unless a Palestinian state is created, shooting down U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that the Saudis were not demanding a Palestinian homeland when he floated the idea of the U.S. government taking control of the Gaza Strip.

Trump said on Tuesday at a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he wants the U.S. to take over the Gaza Strip, which has been ravaged by the Israel-Hamas war, after Palestinians are resettled in other countries.

“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too,” Trump said at the White House. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous, unexplored bombs and other weapons on the site.”

“Level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area,” he said. “Do a real job. Do something different. Just can’t go back. If you go back, it’s going to end up the same way it has for 100 years.”

‘LEVEL IT’: TRUMP SAYS US WILL ‘TAKE OVER’ GAZA STRIP, REBUILD IT TO STABILIZE MIDDLE EAST

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) poses prior to a working lunch with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Presidential Palace on June 16, 2023, in Paris, France. (Getty Images)

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that the country rejects any attempts to displace the Palestinians from their homeland, stressing that its position on the Palestinians is not up to negotiation.

The statement noted that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has affirmed the kingdom’s position in “a clear and explicit manner” that does not make other interpretations possible under any circumstances.

TRUMP’S MIDDLE EAST ENVOY EXPLAINS GAZA TAKEOVER PROPOSAL: ‘MORE HOPE’ FOR PALESTINIANS’ FUTURES

Any proposed displacement of Palestinians, an idea Trump has suggested multiple times since retaking office last month, is a highly sensitive matter for both Palestinians and Arab countries.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu answer questions during a joint press conference in the East Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., February 4, 2025. ( REUTERS/Leah Millis)

Trump said on Jan. 25 that he wanted Jordan, Egypt and other Arab nations to accept more Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip, potentially moving out enough people to “just clean out” the area.

“You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing and say, ‘You know, it’s over,’” he said at the time.

Amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Palestinians feared they would suffer from another “Nakba,” meaning catastrophe in Arabic, which refers to the displacement and dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the 1948 war at the birth of the State of Israel.

‘PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH’: TRUMP AND NETANYAHU EXPECTED TO DISCUSS IRAN, HAMAS AT WHITE HOUSE MEETING

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the East Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., February 4, 2025. (REUTERS/Leah Millis)

The U.S. had led months of diplomacy to convince Saudi Arabia to normalize ties with Israel and recognize the Middle Eastern country. But the war in Gaza, which began with Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on the Jewish State, prompted the Saudis to abandon the matter amid Arab anger over Israel’s offensive.

Trump wants Saudi Arabia to follow in the footsteps of countries including the United Arab Emirates, a Middle East trade and business hub, and Bahrain, which signed the Abraham Accords in 2020 and normalized ties with Israel.

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Saudi Arabia establishing ties with Israel would be a grand prize for the Jewish State because the kingdom has huge influence in the Middle East and the wider Muslim world, and it is the world’s biggest oil exporter.

Reuters contributed to this report.

February 5, 2025
HS basketball coach suspended after hanging up Palestinian flag, refusing to shake hands with Jewish coaches

A Colorado high school basketball coach was suspended after he was seen hanging up a Palestinian flag, and after he refused to shake hands with the opposing coach following a game against a Jewish school last week.

Lotus School for Excellence in Aurora and Denver Torah Academy competed against each other on Jan. 22. The Lotus School told Denver’s 9 News that the head coach of the team, identified only as Coach O., brought out a Palestinian flag before the game and hung it up.

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The Palestinian flag flying atop a flagpole against a blue sky. (iStock)

The school said after the game the coach reacted to the flag again before going to the handshake line. The coach reportedly failed to shake hands with the coaches of Denver Torah.

“He grabs his flag and puts it around his neck,” Lotus School’s athletic director Deon Jackson told the station. “We saw the intent at that point.”

Emrek Bakyt, the school’s principal, announced the coach was suspended along with another assistant coach, according to the New York Post.

“It has nothing to do with Lotus,” Bakyt said. “It does not represent us, and we are, again, all about respect and diversity. That’s what we celebrate. That’s what we take pride in.”

Brandon Rattiner, a member of the Jewish Community Relations Council, condemned the coach’s actions in an interview with the New York Post.

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“I think everybody in the Jewish community is very aware that there’s been a rising tide of antisemitism since Oct. 7,” Rattiner, who spoke on behalf of Denver Torah, told the paper. “And we’ve seen it in schools here and all throughout the country on many different occasions.”

Rattiner added that he thought the “key issue” was when the coach refused to shake the hands of the Jewish coaches.

The coach and an assistant coach were both suspended. (Lance King/Getty Images)

“The key issue here is when the coach refuses to engage with a Jewish coach and Jewish students simply because they are Jewish or holding them personally accountable for a conflict started, not by Israel by the way, halfway across the world thousands and thousands of miles away,” he said.

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“Holding Jewish people accountable for the state actions of Israel is a textbook form of antisemitism.”

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Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital.

January 29, 2025
Trump calls for Jordan, Egypt to accept more Palestinian refugees: ‘Clean out that whole thing’

President Donald Trump said Saturday he wants Jordan, Egypt and other Arab nations to accept more Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip, potentially moving out enough people to “just clean out” the area destroyed in the Israel-Hamas war, which is now under a ceasefire.

Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that he had a conversation earlier in the day with King Abdullah II of Jordan and would speak Sunday with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt.

“I’d like Egypt to take people,” Trump said. “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing and say, ‘You know, it’s over.’”

Trump said he applauded Jordan for accepting Palestinian refugees but that he told the king: “I’d love for you to take on more, because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now, and it’s a mess. It’s a real mess.”

HAMAS RELEASES 4 FEMALE HOSTAGES AS PART OF ISRAEL CEASEFIRE DEAL

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One as he travels from Las Vegas to Miami on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP)

A drastic displacement like this would contradict Palestinian identity and deep connection to Gaza.

“Palestinians in Gaza—like Palestinians in the West Bank and Israel—overwhelmingly trace their ancestry to cities and villages in the region that today comprises Israel and Palestine,” former U.S. Rep. Justin Amash, who is Palestinian, wrote on X. “The idea that they are some kind of spillover from other countries in the so-called Arab world—that they are just interchangeable with other ‘Arabs’—is a false but routinely employed rhetorical device to erase their history on the land.”

“They are the descendants of Canaanites, Israelites, Phoenicians, and other ancient Levantine peoples,” Amash, a libertarian, said. “Their ancestry overlaps with that of their Jewish neighbors, but they are converts to Christianity, Islam, and other religions. Any effort to force them out or to pressure them to leave under threat of force is simply ethnic cleansing.”

But Trump said the part of the world that encompasses Gaza, has “had many, many conflicts” over centuries and that resettling “could be temporary or long term.”

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One as he travels from Las Vegas to Miami on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP)

“Something has to happen,” Trump said. “But it’s literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything’s demolished, and people are dying there. So, 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 for a change.”

Senior Israeli officials said, according to Israel’s Channel 12, that “Trump’s statement about the migration of Gazans to Muslim countries is not a slip of the tongue but part of a much broader move than it seems, coordinated with Israel.”

On Monday, after he was inaugurated, Trump suggested that Gaza has “really got to be rebuilt in a different way.”

“Gaza is interesting,” he added. “It’s a phenomenal location, on the sea. The best weather, you know, everything is good. It’s like, some beautiful things could be done with it, but it’s very interesting.”

SURVIVOR OF NOVA MUSIC FESTIVAL HAMAS TERROR ATTACK WINS SLOT TO REPRESENT ISRAEL AT EUROVISION

President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force One as he travels from Las Vegas to Miami on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP)

Trump also said Saturday that he ended former President Joe Biden’s hold on sending 2,000-pound bombs to Israel that was in place during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, which has been under a ceasefire for a week.

“We released them today,” Trump said of the bombs. “They’ve been waiting for them for a long time.” Trump said he lifted the ban on the bombs “Because they bought them.”

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Biden had halted the delivery of the bombs in May in an effort to prevent Israel from launching an all-out assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

The 15-month-long war in Gaza started when Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, prompting military retaliation from Israeli forces. Nearly 100 hostages remain captive in Gaza.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

January 26, 2025
Israel releases 90 Palestinian prisoners as part of cease-fire deal to free hostages

Israel has released 90 Palestinian prisoners to cheering crowds in the West Bank following the return of three Israeli hostages from Hamas captivity in Gaza.

Some supporters were seen waving Hamas flags after climbing on top of the buses carrying detainees from Israel’s Ofer prison, just outside the West Bank city of Ramallah, according to the Associated Press. All of those freed were women and teenagers who were being held on charges related to Israeli state security.

“There’s this double feeling we’re living in, on the one hand, this feeling of freedom, that we thank everyone for, and on the other hand, this pain, of losing so many Palestinian martyrs,” released detainee and political leader Khalida Jarrar told the news agency.

The 62-year-old is a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization. Jarrar has been in and out of Israeli prison in recent years and Human Rights Watch has previously called her arrests part of Israel’s wider crackdown on non-violent political opposition.

FIRST HOSTAGES RETURN TO ISRAEL AFTER 471 DAYS IN CAPTIVITY

A crowd gathers around a bus carrying released Palestinian prisoners as it arrives in the West Bank city of Beitunia early on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP/Leo Correa)

Bara’a Al-Fuqha, 22, hugged her family as she stepped off the white Red Cross bus and into the sea of cheering Palestinians.

A medical student at Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem before her arrest, she had spent around six months in prison. She told the AP that she was held under administrative detention – a policy of indefinite imprisonment without formal charge or trial.

“Thank God, I am here with my family, I’m satisfied,” she said. “But my joy is limited, because so many among us Palestinians are being tortured and abused. Our people in Gaza are suffering. God willing, we will work to free them, too.”

AUBURN COACH BRUCE PEARL SLAMS HAMAS AFTER HOSTAGES ARE RELEASED

A Palestinian prisoner is greeted as he disembarks from a bus after being released from an Israeli prison in the West Bank city of Beitunia. (AP/Leo Correa)

The cease-fire and hostage deal involves Hamas gradually releasing 33 Israeli hostages held in Gaza over the next six weeks in exchange for Israel releasing nearly 2,000 prisoners and detainees from the West Bank and Gaza.

The first three hostages released by Hamas on Sunday, all young women, were identified as Doron Steinbrecher, 31; Romi Gonen, 24; and Emily Damari, 28.

Palestinians hold posters with the photo of late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh as they wait for the arrival of the released Palestinian prisoners, in the West Bank city of Beitunia, on Sunday, Jan. 19. (AP/Leo Correa)

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“Over the next few days, they will undergo a battery of medical tests in order to prepare proper treatments after enduring such a torturous experience at the hands of Hamas terrorists,” said Yitshak Kreiss, the director-general of Israel’s Sheba Medical Center.

Fox News’ Louis Casiano and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.

January 23, 2025