RAMALLAH: The head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, has rejected any attempts to forcibly displace the Palestinians from their homeland, Al Jazeera reports.
Speaking at the 38th African Union Summit in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, Abbas said, “Anyone who thinks they can impose a new ‘Deal of the Century’ or displace the Palestinian people from their homeland is deluded.”
He added that “calls to remove the Palestinian people from their land and forcefully displace them were merely a diversion from the war crimes, genocide, and destruction in Gaza, as well as the crimes of settlement expansion and attempts to annex the West Bank”.
“The only place where the 1.5 million refugees living in Gaza should return to is their cities and villages from which they were displaced in 1948, in accordance with United Nations Resolution 194,” he added.
Abbas also stressed that “Israeli colonial practices require urgent action from the international community and the UN Security Council to prevent the rise of extremist forces that seek to bury the two-state solution.”
Palestinian pastor questions Trump’s evangelical backers on Gaza plan
Bethlehem pastor Munther Isaac has questioned evangelical Christians in the US over whether they support Trump’s push to “take over” Gaza and expel Palestinians, Al Jazeera reports.
“The Heads of Churches in Jerusalem have spoken with moral clarity against the ‘grave threat of mass displacement in Gaza’, calling it an injustice that strikes at the very heart of human dignity,” Isaac wrote in a post on X.
“Will Trump’s evangelical supporters who claim to care for Middle Eastern Christians take a similar position? Do they care about what church leaders in Jerusalem think?”
In a statement yesterday, the heads of Jerusalem churches warned against Trump’s ethnic cleansing proposal, saying Palestinians in Gaza “must not be forced into exile”.
Evangelical Christians are staunch supporters of Israel and make up a sizeable portion of Trump’s Republican political base.
Hamas says US must ‘compel’ Israel to abide by Gaza truce to secure captives’ release
Meanwhile, Hamas has said that the United States, a mediator in the Gaza truce deal, must ensure that Israel abides by the agreement to secure the release of captives still held in the Palestinian territory, AFP reports.
“The United States must compel the occupation to adhere to the agreement if it truly cares about the prisoners’ (captives) lives,” said Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for Hamas, in a statement issued after the group freed three captives earlier in the day.
