'I'm Asking Trump Himself To Relocate Us': Gazan Citizens Say They Want Out

'I want to leave because there's no life left here; life here is gone,' one interviewee says

As President Donald Trump moves forward with his plan to "own" Gaza and relocate its inhabitants, some citizens of the war-torn strip are expressing an eagerness to leave, citing a desolate living situation and an eagerness to live in "a country where you can hold your head up high."

The remarks stem from interviews conducted by the Center for Peace Communications, a New York-based nonprofit known for producing on-the-ground videos in Gaza, Syria, and other Iran-dominated areas in the Middle East. The group conducted those interviews in the 36 hours that followed Trump's Feb. 4 joint press conference with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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One interviewee, a young man in a backward cap, says he wants to leave "because there's no life left here; life here is gone." The man makes a direct plea to Trump, saying, "I'm asking Trump himself to relocate us as he suggested, and I'll be the first one to go."

"I mean, just look around you—we simply can't live here," the man says.

Others featured in the video call on Arab nations like Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia to "open the crossings" and take in fleeing Gazans. One man says that Gazans will ultimately agree to move to those countries if given the opportunity "because they want to live."

"In the end, people will accept reality," the man says. "They'll emigrate because they want to live. They want to live in a country that protects and supports them, meaning a country where you can hold your head up high."

"If our country isn't looking out for us, where should we go?"

The interviews stand in stark contrast to remarks aired by mainstream media networks in the wake of Trump's press conference. ABC News, for example, aired remarks from residents of so-called refugee camps in the strip under the headline, "Inside Gaza, Palestinians say they will not leave." One older interviewee said, "We will not leave even if we die here. This is our country."

Many younger Gazans, however, expressed a desire to leave the strip before Oct. 7 and the subsequent war between Hamas and Israel. A Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research poll taken just before Hamas's terror attack found that 44 percent of Gazans between the ages of 18 and 29 were considering emigrating. Nearly a third of all Gazans agreed, according to the poll.

Joseph Braude, president of the Center for Peace Communications, said the numbers shown in the poll have "undoubtedly" increased in the wake of Oct. 7.

"The numbers were in the 40s among younger Gazans, and that's before Oct. 7, when there was a semblance of continuity in daily life," he told the Washington Free Beacon. "That proportion has increased dramatically over the course of the war, and it grew even further over the weeks of this recent ceasefire when Gazans had a chance to tour the north and see what had happened to their homes."

"So we're undoubtedly at a moment in which the majority of the population would emigrate if safe haven were offered to them."

Trump first floated his call to resettle and rebuild Gaza in late January, telling reporters aboard Air Force One that he had asked King Abdullah II of Jordan to "take people" from the strip. He suggested that mass emigration from Gaza could help resolve "centuries" of conflict.

Trump expanded on those remarks one week later, outlining an ambitious plan to resettle Gaza's population, clear out "unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site," and spearhead "economic development," actions that Trump said could make Gaza the "Riviera of the Middle East."

Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, which have long rejected calls to accept Gazan residents into their countries, responded by dismissing Trump's plans. Gazans interviewed in the Center for Peace Communications video urged the nations' leaders to reconsider.

"To our brotherly Egyptian and Jordanian people and King Abdullah: We hope they open the crossings for the youth who are leaving, for the wounded, for the sick, and the elderly who need treatment," one man says in the video.

https://freebeacon.com/israel/im-asking-trump-himself-to-relocate-us-gazan-citizens-say-they-want-out/