Kenya Insights

Tag: Palestine

  • Trump says Hamas Should Free All Hostages By Midday Saturday Or ‘Let Hell Break Out’

    Trump says Hamas Should Free All Hostages By Midday Saturday Or ‘Let Hell Break Out’

    U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that Hamas should release all hostages held by the militant group in Gaza by midday Saturday or he would propose canceling the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and “let hell break out.”

    Trump cautioned that Israel might want to override him on the issue and said he might speak to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

    But in a wide-ranging session with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump expressed frustration with the condition of the last group of hostages freed by Hamas and by the announcement by the militant group that it would halt further releases.

    “As far as I’m concerned, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday at 12 o’clock, I think it’s an appropriate time. I would say, cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out. I’d say they ought to be returned by 12 o’clock on Saturday,” Trump said.

    He said he wanted the hostages released en masse, instead of a few at a time. “We want ’em all back.”

    Trump also said he might withhold aid to Jordan and Egypt if they don’t take Palestinian refugees being relocated from Gaza. He is to meet Jordan’s King Abdullah on Tuesday.

    The comments came on a day of some confusion over Trump’s proposal for a U.S. takeover of Gaza once the fighting stops.

    He said Palestinians would not have the right of return to the Gaza Strip under his proposal to redevelop the enclave, contradicting his own officials who had suggested Gazans would only be relocated temporarily.

    In an excerpt of an interview with Fox News channel’s Bret Baier broadcast on Monday, Trump added that he thought he could make a deal with Jordan and Egypt to take the displaced Palestinians, saying the U.S. gives the two countries “billions and billions of dollars a year.”

    Asked if Palestinians would have the right to return to Gaza, Trump said: “No, they wouldn’t because they’re going to have much better housing.”

    “I’m talking about building a permanent place for them,” he said, adding it would take years for Gaza to be habitable again.

    In a shock announcement on Feb. 4 after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, Trump proposed resettling Gaza’s 2.2 million Palestinians and the U.S. taking control of the seaside enclave, redeveloping it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”

    IGNITE THE REGION

    Trump’s suggestion of Palestinian displacement has been repeatedly rejected by Gaza residents and Arab states, and labeled by rights advocates and the United Nations as a proposal of ethnic cleansing.

    Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Trump’s statement that Palestinians would not be able to return to Gaza was “irresponsible.”

    “We affirm that such plans are capable of igniting the region,” he told Reuters on Monday.

    Netanyahu, who praised the proposal, suggested Palestinians would be allowed to return. “They can leave, they can then come back, they can relocate and come back. But you have to rebuild Gaza,” he said the day after Trump’s announcement.

    U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who will depart later this week for his first visit to the Middle East in the office, said on Thursday that Palestinians would have to “live somewhere else in the interim,” during reconstruction, although he declined to explicitly rule out their permanent displacement.

    The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the disparity between Rubio and Trump’s most recent remarks on the plan.

    Trump’s comments come as a fragile ceasefire reached last month between Israel and Hamas is at risk of collapse after Hamas announced on Monday it would stop releasing Israeli hostagesover alleged Israeli violations of the agreement.
    Israel’s Arab neighbors, including Egypt and Jordan, have said any plan to transfer Palestinians from their land would destabilize the region.

    Rubio met Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty in Washington on Monday. Egypt’s foreign ministry said Abdelatty told Rubio that Arab countries support Palestinians in rejecting Trump’s plan. Cairo fears Palestinians could be forced across Egypt’s border with Gaza.

    Trump said in the Fox News interview that between two and six communities could be built for the Palestinians “a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is.”

    “I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land. No big money spent,” he said.

  • No Right Of Return For Palestinians Under Gaza Plan: Trump

    No Right Of Return For Palestinians Under Gaza Plan: Trump

    US President Donald Trump said in comments aired Monday that Palestinians who leave the besieged Gaza Strip under his widely panned ownership plan for the coastal enclave will not be allowed to return.

    “We’ll build safe communities a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is. In the meantime, I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future, it would be a beautiful piece of land,” Trump said during an interview with Fox News.

    Asked directly by the interviewer if Palestinians would “have the right to return,” Trump said flatly, “No, they wouldn’t, because they’re going to have much better housing.”

    “In other words, I’m talking about building a permanent place for them, because if they have to return now, it will be years before you could ever… it’s not habitable. It will be years before it could happen. I’m talking about starting to build and I think I could make a deal with Jordan, I think I could make a deal with Egypt, you know, we give them billions and billions of dollars a year,” he added.

    Trump rolled out his proposal in the midst of an ongoing ceasefire that has halted Israel’s war on Gaza after 15 months. His plan to take ownership of Gaza has been roundly rejected on the world stage, but Trump has insisted that he will see it through, repeatedly claiming he can force Egypt and Jordan to settle Palestinian refugees — claims they have publicly rebuffed, as have the Palestinians.

    Jordan’s King Abdullah is slated to visit the White House this week.

    Trump’s plan shares strong similarities to one publicly put forward by his son-in-law Jared Kushner in March 2024, when the president’s one-time advisor lauded the Palestinian territory’s “very valuable” Mediterranean property.

    “Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable if people would focus on building up livelihoods,” Kushner said during an interview at Harvard University. “It’s a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but I think from Israel’s perspective I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up.”

    Israel’s war on Gaza has left the besieged enclave in ruins, with half of its housing damaged or destroyed and nearly 2 million people displaced amid severe shortages of sanitation, medical supplies, food, and clean water. Over 47,000 people have been killed.

    In November, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, citing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Separately, Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice.

  • Three European Countries Move To Recognize Palestine

    Three European Countries Move To Recognize Palestine

    By Steven Williams

    Ireland, Spain, and Norway have made moves aimed at recognizing Palestine as an independent state. The leaders of the three nations underlined in their statements that a Palestinian state was necessary and that a two-state solution was the only way to achieve peace. According to US officials, such a move is premature and ill-advised.

    The recognition comes against the backdrop of a gruesome attack on Israel by the militant group Hamas on October 7th, 2023. Israel launched “Operation Iron Swords” military campaign against the militant group in the Gaza Strip. The campaign is ongoing and has claimed about 35,000 casualties on the Palestinians’ side according to the Gaza Ministry of Health which is controlled by Hamas. Hamas makes no differentiation between civilians and combatants killed in lawful military fire in its overall figures. Kenya Insights is not able to independently verify Hamas’s claims.

    The Israeli Foreign Minister, Israel Katz, criticized the move to recognize an independent Palestinian state as insincere. “I have instructed the immediate recall of Israel’s ambassadors to Ireland and Norway for consultations in light of these countries’ decisions to recognize a Palestinian state. I’m sending a clear and unequivocal message to Ireland and Norway: Israel will not remain silent in the face of those undermining its sovereignty and endangering its security. Today’s decision sends a message to the Palestinians and the world: Terrorism pays. After the Hamas terror organization carried out the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, after committing heinous sexual crimes witnessed by the world, these countries chose to reward Hamas and Iran by recognizing a Palestinian state. This distorted step by these countries is an injustice to the memory of the victims of 7/10, a blow to efforts to return the 128 hostages, and a boost to Hamas and Iran’s jihadists, which undermines the chance for peace and questions Israel’s right to self-defense. Israel will not remain silent – there will be further severe consequences. If Spain follows through on its intention to recognize a Palestinian state, a similar step will be taken against it. The Irish-Norwegian folly does not deter us; we are determined to achieve our goals: restoring security to our citizens, dismantling Hamas, and bringing the hostages home. There are no more just causes than these.” The minister noted in his X account.

    Hamas on the other hand called on “countries around the world to recognize our legitimate national rights” and stated in a statement, “We consider this an important step towards affirming our right to our land.”

    Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas who has been in power for the last 20 years, hailed the move and urged other countries to follow the lead of Spain, Ireland, and Norway. The President asked other countries to “follow the example of Norway, Ireland, and Spain, which chose the path of supporting the achievement of peace and stability and consolidating the rules of international legitimacy, and international law.”.

    Slovenia, Belgium and Malta are expected to follow suit in the coming days. Nine European Union nations have formally recognized Palestine as a state. Most of those took the decision in 1988 when they were part of the Soviet bloc. Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, and Slovakia are among the countries on the list. France said that it’s not a “taboo” to recognize Palestine as a state while Britain insisted, that a ceasefire must be in place first before such a move is undertaken.

    Germany, a staunch Israeli ally, is ambivalent about the recognition of Palestine as a state. There is however a representative office in Ramallah and is the second largest donor to UNWRA, the Palestinian refugee agency.

    Recognition of Palestine as a state is particularly controversial due to significant areas that need final resolution before such a move is undertaken. The major issues are the status of Jerusalem which is claimed by both Israel and Palestine, the borders of a modern-day state of Palestine, the settlements in the West Bank area which is known as Judea and Samaria in Israel, the rights of a Palestinian state in regard to military and airspace access and also the right of return.

    The right of return is a demand that all Palestinians who ran away after war broke out between Israel and the Arab countries be allowed to return alongside their descendants. Such a move has been severely opposed by Israel.

    Israel still has the upper hand in terms of diplomatic recognition boasting diplomatic recognition from 165 (or 85%) of the 193 total UN member states, and also maintains bilateral ties with all of the Permanent Five members of the UN. North Korea is the only distinct non-Arab, non-Muslim majority country that does not recognize Israel. Palestine on the other hand has recognition from 143 out of 193 UN members with 2 out 5 veto members recognizing it as well. Both Palestine and Israel recognize each other as part of the Oslo Accords Peace Process.

    Kenya recognized Israel in 1963 and Palestine in 1989. In Africa, Cameroon and Eritrea have never recognized a Palestinian state. Some countries such as DRC and Rwanda did recognize Palestine in one way or the other in the past. Kenya supports a two-state solution to the conflict and has always been its position when it comes to the conflict.