Relocation demand puts Gaza ceasefire in limbo

The renewed suggestion to relocate Palestinians out of devastated Gaza by the Israeli prime minister during his meeting with the US President Donald Trump in Washington in defiance of resistance and criticism may again shroud the prospects of a ceasefire in Gaza, experts say.

Speaking to reporters at the White House during his dinner with Trump on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "We're working with the United States very closely about finding countries that will seek to realize what they always say — that they wanted to give the Palestinians a better future."

"If people want to stay, they can stay, but if they want to leave, they should be able to leave," he said.

Netanyahu also said Israel would not want a Palestinian state after what happened on Oct 7 in 2023 — which goes against UN Security Council resolutions on a two-state solution to the crisis.

Former Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas, in an interview with Al Jazeera, called the talks of relocation "a recipe for catastrophe" as it ensured that "no postwar agreement in Gaza is durable".

The move to relocate Gazans had previously been condemned by the international community, including the Palestinian Authority.

Confidence expressed

Trump, in his meeting with Netanyahu, has said talks to end the conflict in Gaza have been "going along very well" and expressed confidence that Palestinian militant group Hamas was willing to end the 21-month conflict.

Steve Witkoff, the US envoy to the Middle East, who was also present at the dinner, was heading to the region in the coming days to work on the ceasefire deal.

Ayman Yousef, a professor of international relations at the Arab American University in Jenin, West Bank, told China Daily that there are some opportunities for a political settlement between Hamas and Israel.

"Now we have two perspectives. The American perspective represented by Trump who's trying to convince Netanyahu to go for this political settlement or political deal with Hamas," he said.

"Netanyahu tried to convince President Trump that Hamas is more connected with an Iranian project and it is the continuation of the Iranian threat, and in order to settle this dispute with Hamas and Iran, more military force is needed."

Trump said Iran and the US are in contact for the possible resumption of talks.

But Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei has dismissed the claims made by Trump regarding the nuclear negotiations between Tehran and Washington.

"No request for a meeting has been made to the American side from our side," the senior Iranian diplomat said on Tuesday.

Gokhan Batu, an analyst on Israel studies at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies in Turkiye, told China Daily: "Trump's recent public commitment to ending the war in Gaza is likely to remain a critical point of discussion. Yet, it is not merely the end of the war that matters, it is how the war will end — that carries significant implications."

Meanwhile, there were reports of Israeli strikes on civilian homes and shelters for the displaced at dawn on Tuesday, resulting in the killing of more than 20 people.

Five Israeli soldiers have also been killed in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday and 14 were wounded by a roadside bomb in Beit Hanoun, Israel's military announced on Tuesday morning.