Displaced Palestinians journey from central Gaza to their homes in the northern Gaza Strip, February 11, 2025. Photo: AP
The ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel has held for the moment. On Saturday, February 15, as scheduled, Hamas released three Israelis hostages taken on October 7, 2023, and Israel released 369 Palestinians held in its dungeon-like prisons, some for many years.
Trump is continuing to stoke the flames of genocide in Gaza and beyond, even as this ceasefire hangs by a thread.
For the last two weeks, Trump has repeatedly put forward his blatantly illegal plan to take over and “own” Gaza. He’s said that all 2.1 million Palestinians living there would have to leave, and could never return. He’s threatened to cut off aid to the neighboring countries of Jordan and Egypt if they wouldn’t take in Palestinians expelled from Gaza.
“We’re going to have Gaza. We don’t have to buy. There’s nothing to buy. We will have Gaza," he told reporters. “We’re going to take it.” When challenged, Trump insists he’s going to go forward with his depraved plan.
These are ugly cold gangster threats which would result in mass suffering and slaughter. And they are deadly serious.
Trump Normalizes Netanyahu Threats to Break Ceasefire and Resume Gaza Onslaught
Trump’s outrageous threats have changed the terms for the discussion of Israel-Palestine: now, the massive, forced exile of two million people is openly "one of the options on the table."
This is having enormous repercussions, including on the current negotiations over whether or not to continue the Gaza ceasefire.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government have so far refused to deliver much of the desperately needed humanitarian aid, especially tents and mobile homes, promised under Phase 1 of the ceasefire agreement or begin Phase 2 negotiations aimed at ending their assault on Gaza and withdrawing their forces.1
Instead, Israel may abandon the ceasefire and unleash a new wave of “intense fighting” in Gaza. This would come on top of a nightmare where at least 48,000 (and possibly double that) have already been killed—including nearly 18,000 children. At least 79,000 homes have been demolished and the infrastructure of Gaza has been destroyed.
Now Trump’s plan serves to make Netanyahu’s outrageous actions look "reasonable." (And in a February 15 social media post, Trump said the U.S. would back any decision Israel made regarding the ceasefire.)
Meanwhile, in response to Trump’s plan, Israel's defense minister has already ordered its military to prepare a plan to facilitate Palestinians leaving Gaza by land, air or sea.
Escalating Atrocities and Ethnic Cleansing on the West Bank
Jabaliya refugee camp in the West Bank destroyed by the Israeli army's air and ground offensive, February 11, 2025. Photo: AP
Meanwhile, Israel is savagely intensifying ethnic cleansing in the Palestinian West Bank, the area west of the Jordan River, where three million Palestinian people live.2
Trump’s return to power and his threats to Gaza have helped fuel this escalation and open calls for illegally annexing the entire West Bank. Annexing basically means stealing all the land and integrating it into your country, no matter who lives there and at what human cost.
To take one example, on January 21, the day after Trump took power and two days after the Gaza ceasefire went into effect, Israel launched its largest military operation in the West Bank in some 25 years. It targeted four different refugee camps—Jenin, Tulkarem, Nur Shams, and Al-Far’a—and has so far displaced over 40,000 Palestinians.3
Religious settler fanatics hailed Trump’s return to power and are now praising his threat to expel all Palestinians from Gaza and stepping up their own planning to annex the West Bank.4
Republi-fascists in the U.S. Congress recently introduced bills banning the term “West Bank” in government documents and replacing it with “Judea and Samaria,” the biblical names for what is today the West Bank. Their explicit aim is supporting Israeli annexation and ending the possibility of any sort of independent sovereignty for Palestinians.
Trump Threatens New Level of Atrocity – “All Hell Will Break Loose”
This Must Not Stand!
This past week, Trump threatened that “all hell will break loose” if Hamas didn’t release its hostages by the scheduled February 15 deadline. Hamas initially said they would not release the hostages because Israel had not been meeting its end of the deal to allow essential humanitarian supplies into Gaza. That deadline has now been met, but Trump’s threat of massive U.S. assault, beyond even the enormous horror that the Biden administration carried out, is an accepted part of diplomatic discourse.
The fascist Trump regime is openly, loudly, and repeatedly threatening a whole new level of genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, and now unprecedented violence against any who stand in the way.
None of this must stand! These crimes must be vigorously and massively opposed by growing numbers here and around the world. Trump is openly putting it all on the table.
There are no excuses for standing on the sidelines!
Over 350 rabbis and other Jewish people, including Tony Kushner, Ilana Glazer, Naomi Klein and Joaquin Phoenix, took out a full-page ad in the New York Times on February 13 saying, “Trump has called for the removal of all Palestinians from Gaza. Jewish people say no to ethnic cleansing!” See list of signatories at SayNoToEthnicCleansing.org.
Ad in New York Times, February 13, 2025.