A senior Hamas official on Monday urged supporters worldwide to take up arms and resist U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to relocate more than two million Gazans to neighboring countries like Egypt and Jordan.
“In the face of this sinister plan, one that combines massacres with starvation, anyone who can bear arms, anywhere in the world, must take action,” Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement. “Do not withhold an explosive, a bullet, a knife, or a stone. Let everyone break their silence.”
Abu Zuhri’s remarks came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested Hamas leaders could leave Gaza, but only if they agreed to disarm in the final stages of the conflict.
Hamas has shown readiness to relinquish Gaza’s administration but has stressed that its weapons are a “red line.”
Netanyahu said that Israel was working on a plan proposed by Trump to relocate Gazans to other countries. He said Israel would guarantee overall security in Gaza after the war, enabling the implementation of Trump’s plan, which initially called for the mass displacement of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents.
The plan, described as a “voluntary migration plan,” has been met with widespread condemnation.
Trump’s proposal to relocate Gaza’s population was initially floated in January, with suggestions that Egypt or Jordan might accept them.
Both countries, along with other Arab nations and the Palestinians, have rejected the plan. In mid-March, Trump appeared to backtrack, stating that he was “not forcing” the relocation and that “nobody’s expelling any Palestinians.”
Since then, Arab nations have proposed an alternative plan to rebuild Gaza without displacing its people, under the future governance of the Palestinian Authority based in Ramallah. For Palestinians, any attempt to expel them would evoke painful memories of the 1948 “Nakba,” or catastrophe, when many were displaced during the creation of Israel.
Israel’s Defense Minister, Israel Katz, in February, announced plans for a “voluntary departure” program for Gazans. A defense ministry statement outlined a package offering special arrangements for those wishing to emigrate, including sea, air, and land departure options.
Israel resumed heavy bombing of Gaza on March 18 and launched a new ground offensive, ending a ceasefire that lasted nearly two months.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza reported at least 921 deaths since the fighting resumed, bringing the total toll of the war sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel to 1,218 Israelis dead, according to official Israeli figures. Israel’s retaliatory strikes have killed at least 50,277 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
