Live blog: Moving Palestinians to safer areas 'more majestic' — Trump

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

1919 GMT — US President Donald Trump believes it would be "more majestic" if Palestinians in Gaza were relocated to safer areas, the White House has said.

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said Trump and Jordan's King Abdullah II discussed Gaza and its future at "great length" during a meeting Tuesday at the White House.

"The king would much prefer that the Palestinians stay in place with the additional land to be used for new development, which would greatly create jobs at levels never seen before," said Leavitt. "But the president feels it would be much better and more majestic if these Palestinians could be moved to safer areas."

Leavitt did not specify which areas Trump envisions as "safer" for Palestinians.

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1849 GMT — Israeli jets fly over Lebanese capital, break sound barrier for first time since ceasefire

Israeli warplanes broke the sound barrier over the Lebanese capital Beirut and its southern suburbs in the evening, marking the first such incident since the Nov. 27 ceasefire agreement.

The escalation coincides with reports of Israel postponing the withdrawal of its army forces from southern Lebanon despite a Feb. 18 deadline.

According to the Lebanese state news agency NNA, Israeli fighter jets conducted low-altitude flights over Beirut, the Matn district in Mount Lebanon, and parts of the Bekaa region in eastern Lebanon.

1641 GMT — Egyptian, Jordanian leaders stress 'unity' of positions on Gaza

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi and Jordan's King Abdullah II stressed the "unity" of their countries' positions on Gaza, a day after US President Donald Trump held talks with the Jordanian monarch in Washington.

"The two leaders affirmed the unity of the Egyptian and Jordanian positions, including the necessity of the full implementation of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, the continued release of hostages and prisoners and facilitating the entry of humanitarian aid," a statement from the Egyptian presidency said.

Both leaders stressed the need for the "immediate start of the reconstruction process in Gaza, without displacing the Palestinian people from their land".

1637 GMT — Upholding ceasefire in Gaza crucial for saving human lives: ICRC

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Wednesday that upholding the ceasefire in Gaza has a "tangible" impact on people's lives, urging parties to maintain the crucial efforts.

"Countless lives have been saved over the three weeks of the ceasefire. This period of calm has had a tangible impact on people's lives – including those released from captivity and those spared from further hostilities, as well as all the families who have been reunited," the ICRC said in a statement.

"Any reversal risks plunging people back into the misery and despair that defined the last 16 months," it warned.

1624 GMT — Israel warns of 'war' in Gaza if Hamas halts prisoners' release

Israel's Defence Minister Israel Katz has warned that the country would resume its war in Gaza if Hamas fails to uphold the ceasefire agreement and release Israeli prisoners by Saturday.

"The new Gaza war will be different in intensity from the one before the ceasefire, and it will not end without the defeat of Hamas and the release of all the hostages. It will also allow the realisation of US President (Donald) Trump's vision for Gaza," Katz said, referring to Trump's plan for the US to take over the Palestinian territory.

1541 GMT — Israel wants to keep troops in Lebanon until Feb. 28

Israel has requested to keep its troops in five posts in southern Lebanon until Feb. 28, a Lebanese official and a foreign diplomat told Reuters on Wednesday, saying that Lebanon was opposed to the move.

Under a ceasefire deal agreed in November between Lebanon and Israel, Israeli troops had until Jan. 26 to withdraw from southern Lebanon.

That deadline had already been extended until Feb. 18, but a Lebanese official and a foreign diplomat in Lebanon told Reuters on Wednesday that Israel had requested an additional ten-day extension.

1422 GMT — Egypt, Qatar intensify efforts to save Gaza ceasefire: report

Egypt and Qatar are intensifying efforts to save the Gaza ceasefire deal, state-affiliated Egypt's Al Qahera news TV has reported, citing an Egyptian source.

The ceasefire has looked increasingly fragile since Hamas said this week it was postponing the release of any more Israeli hostages held in Gaza, accusing Israel of violating the terms of the ceasefire agreement.

1403 GMT — Genocidal acts in Gaza risk being repeated in West Bank

Genocidal acts in Gaza risk being perpetrated in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, the UN special rapporteur told Anadolu during her visit to the Church of Dominiscus in Holland.

Read more here

1355 GMT — Hamas rejects US and Israeli threats over Gaza truce

Hamas has said it will not accept threats from the US and Israel over an ongoing truce in Gaza, amid an impasse between the parties over the implementation of the ceasefire deal.

"Our position is clear, and we will not accept the language of American and Israeli threats. Israel must commit to implementing the terms of the ceasefire agreement for the release" of the hostages, Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said in a statement.

1314 GMT — UAE president tells US a two-state solution is key for peace in region

United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that peace efforts in the region should be on the basis of a two-state solution for the Israel-Palestinian conflict, state news agency WAM reported.

It said the UAE, one of the few Arab countries that normalised relations with Israel, categorically rejected any attempt to displace the Palestinians and deny them "inalienable rights".

1245 GMT — Hamas delegation arrives in Cairo for Gaza ceasefire talks

A Hamas delegation has arrived in Cairo to continue Gaza ceasefire talks with the second phase supposed to get under way, a statement by the Palestinian resistance group said.

Hamas said earlier this week it would stop the release of hostages scheduled for Saturday until further notice.

1156 GMT — Russia, Sudan voice concern over possible collapse of Gaza truce

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has expressed concern over the possible collapse of the Gaza cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Speaking at a news conference in Moscow after a meeting with Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Yousif Sharif, Lavrov said his counterpart shared the concern.

"We talked, of course, about regional affairs, first of all about the situation in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict zone. We are concerned about the implementation of the agreements between Israel and Hamas, the parties accuse each other of violating the agreements of Jan. 19," he said.

1138 GMT — US approach on Gaza is 'difficult': UAE envoy

The United Arab Emirates' ambassador to the United States, Yousef Al Otaiba, has said that the US approach to Gaza is "difficult".

"But at the end of the day, we're all in a solution-seeking business, we just don't know where it's going to land yet," he said during the World Governments Summit in Dubai.

1132 GMT — Egypt's President Sisi to not attend any White House talks if Gaza displacement on agenda, Egyptian sources say

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el Sisi will not travel to Washington for talks at the White House if the agenda includes US President Donald Trump's plan to displace Palestinians from Gaza, two Egyptian security sources said.

In a call between Trump and Sisi on February 1, the US president extended an open invitation to Sisi to visit the White House, the Egyptian presidency previously said. No date has been set for any such visit, a US official said.

The Egyptian presidency and Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

1109 GMT — Gaza death toll reaches 48,222 as more bodies found in rubble

Palestinian medics and rescue teams recovered two more bodies from the rubble in Gaza, bringing the overall death toll from Israel’s genocidal war since October 2023 to 48,222, the Health Ministry said.

A ministry statement said that the toll also included one Palestinian killed by Israeli fire in the last 24 hours.

According to the ministry, nine injured people were also admitted to hospitals, taking the number of the injured to 111,674 in the Israeli onslaught.

0824 GMT — Regional stability depends on Gaza, Palestinian peace: Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that regional stability depends on Gaza and Palestinian peace.

''Other states in the region cannot achieve stability until Gaza and Palestinians find peace,'' Erdogan said in a joint news conference with his Indonesian counterpart Prabowo Subianto in Bogor.

He also renewed his call for the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

“The establishment of a sovereign and territorially intact Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, cannot be delayed any further,” he added.

Read the full story here.

0822 GMT — Lebanon calls proposals to displace Palestinians from Gaza ‘imaginary’

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has called proposals to displace Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan “imaginary.”

“I find this talk outrageous,” Salam told the Lebanese state television.

“Not only is the idea of transferring the people of Gaza to Egypt and Jordan a visionary issue, but transferring them to the West Bank is outrageous and unacceptable – morally, politically, and legally.”

0747 GMT — China says 'Gaza belongs to the Palestinians', opposes 'forced displacement'

China has reiterated its opposition to the "forced displacement" of Palestinians when asked about US President Donald Trump's plan to move Gaza's inhabitants elsewhere.

"Gaza belongs to the Palestinians and is an integral part of the Palestinian territory... We oppose the forced displacement of the people of Gaza," foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a regular press briefing.

0734 GMT — Moving Palestinians 'unacceptable for Arab world': Arab League chief

Displacing Palestinians from their Gaza and occupied West Bank territories is "unacceptable" to the region, Arab League secretary-general Ahmed Aboul Gheit has said.

"It's unacceptable for the Arab world which has fought this idea for 100 years," he said at the World Governments Summit in Dubai when asked about US President Donald Trump's plan to move Gaza's inhabitants.

0713 GMT — Israeli army kills one more Palestinian, injures another in Rafah despite ceasefire

The Israeli army has killed one more Palestinian and injured another in Rafah, southern Gaza, despite the ceasefire.

A medical source told Anadolu that "a martyr and a seriously wounded man" were brought to the Gaza European hospital in Khan Younis, as a result of an Israeli drone strike on a group of people in eastern Rafah city.

Eyewitnesses had told Anadolu that an Israeli drone fired a rocket on a group of people while inspecting their homes in the "Abu Halawa" area in Rafah, resulting in one man killed and another seriously wounded.

0710 GMT — Israeli army withdraws from southern Tubas in occupied West Bank following 11-day offensive

The Israeli army has withdrawn from the southern Tubas area in the northern occupied West Bank following an 11-day military offensive.

Eyewitnesses told Anadolu that the Israeli army left all the locations in the Fara refugee camp it seized, but leaving behind large scale of destruction.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army continues its devastating offensive in the areas of Jenin and Tulkarem, the northern occupied West Bank, that started on Jan. 21, and has so far left over 30 people killed, displaced thousands of people, and also caused wide-scale destruction.

0653 GMT — North Korea rejects Trump's Gaza 'takeover' proposal

North Korea has rejected US President Donald Trump's proposal to "take over" Gaza and relocate Palestinians to other countries, calling it an "act of forcibly expelling the people of Gaza."

The state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a commentary on its website that national sovereignty cannot be subject to negotiations with Washington.

"At a time when blood and tears are still being shed in Gaza and concerns are growing at home and abroad about the fragile state of affairs, the world is shocked by the outrageous rhetoric that tramples on the thin air of Palestinian hopes for peace and a stable life in the region," it said.


0639 GMT — French president pushes back on Trump's Gaza deportation plan, demands respect for Palestinians

French President Emmanuel Macron has called for “respect” for Palestinians, rejecting US President Donald Trump’s reported plans for the mass deportation of Palestinians in Gaza.

Speaking to CNN, Macron said: "You cannot say to two million people, 'okay, now guess what? You will move'," emphasising that this is not a matter of “real estate” but a “political operation.”

Macron also said any “efficient” response to rebuilding Gaza “doesn’t mean automatically that you should lack respect to people or countries,” highlighting the wishes of Palestinians to remain in their homelands and the unwillingness of both Jordan and Egypt to accept large numbers of refugees.

2220 GMT — Egypt to present proposal for Gaza reconstruction ensuring Palestinians remain on their land

Egypt announced its intention to present a proposal for the reconstruction of Gaza designed to ensure that the Palestinian people remain on their land, consistent with their legal and rightful claims.

In a statement from its Foreign Ministry, Egypt expressed its eagerness to "cooperate with the US administration under President Donald Trump to reach a comprehensive and just peace in the region," aiming for a fair resolution to the Palestinian issue that respects the rights of the peoples in the area.

The statement also indicated that Egypt plans to propose a "comprehensive vision" for Gaza's reconstruction focused on securing the Palestinian population's continued presence on their land.

2154 GMT — Gaza rebuild plan without expelling residents in place: Jordan

An Arab, Egyptian and Palestinian plan is in place to rebuild besieged Gaza without displacing Palestinians, Jordan's foreign minister says.

In an interview with Al Mamlaka television, Ayman Safadi emphasised the need to continue sending aid to Gaza and ensure that the ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas is upheld. He did not provide specific details on the reconstruction plan.

Safadi stressed that Jordan's position is based on the principle that "Jordan is for Jordanians, and Palestine is for Palestinians."

He pointed out that Jordan's King Abdullah II, along with US President Donald Trump, have offered "practical ideas" for the region.

He also noted that Trump has recognised Jordan's central role in supporting regional stability.

2237 GMT — Hamas condemns Trump's plan to empty Gaza of Palestinians

The Palestinian resistance group said the president's comments were "racist" and "a call for ethnic cleansing."

The group declared that Gaza's residents have endured relentless bombardment and aggression but remain steadfast in their homeland.

In a statement on the messaging app Telegram, Hamas accused Trump of seeking to "liquidate the Palestinian cause and deny the national rights of the Palestinian people."

2101 GMT — Gaza ceasefire must be implemented in full, without new conditions: EU envoy

The Gaza ceasefire must be fully implemented without new conditions, the EU special representative for the Middle East Peace Process said.

"The Gaza ceasefire has brought the beginnings of relief, freedom and hope for safety to countless suffering, innocent people," Sven Koopmans wrote on X.

The special representative said: "It must be implemented in full and without new conditions."

For our live updates from Tuesday, February 11, 2025, click here.