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WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Jordan and Egypt should take more Palestinians from Gaza, shattered by 15 months of war, is seen raising concerns among the enclave’s inhabitants as well as its neighbors. The proposal is likely to heighten fears among Palestinians in Gaza, which had a pre-war population of around 2.3 million, of being driven out of the coastal strip, and stoke concern in Arab states that have long worried about the destabilising impact of any such exodus.

WHAT IS BEHIND THE CONCERNS?
Palestinians have long been haunted by what they call the “Nakba,” or catastrophe, when 700,000 of them were dispossessed from their homes during the war that surrounded the creation of Israel in 1948.
Many were driven out or fled to neighboring Arab states, including to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, where many of them and their descendants still live in refugee camps. Some went to Gaza. Israel disputes the account that they were forced out. The latest conflict, currently paused amid a fragile ceasefire agreement, has seen an unprecedented Israeli bombardment and land offensive in Gaza, devastating urban areas.
Most Gazans have been displaced several times during Israel’s offensive, launched after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.
More than 47,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to Palestinian health officials.

HOW HAVE PALESTINIANS MOVED DURING THIS CONFLICT?

Before Israel launched its offensive in 2023, it told Palestinians in north Gaza to move to what it said were safe areas in the south. As the offensive expanded, Israel told them to head further south toward Rafah.
Later in the war, before launching a campaign in Rafah, it instructed them to move to a new designated humanitarian zone in Al-Mawasi, an area that stretches 12 km (7 miles) along the coast, starting from the western areas of Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza to Khan Younis and Rafah in the south.
According to UN estimates, up to 85 percent of the population of Gaza — one of the world’s most densely populated areas — have already been displaced from their homes.

COULD A MAJOR DISPLACEMENT FROM GAZA HAPPEN?
Many Palestinians in Gaza have said they would not leave the enclave even if they could because they fear it might lead to another permanent displacement in a repeat of 1948.
Egypt, meanwhile, has kept the border firmly closed except to let a few thousand foreigners, dual nationals and a handful of others leave Gaza.
Egypt and other Arab nations strongly oppose any attempt to push Palestinians over the border. Yet, the scale of this conflict eclipses other Gaza crises or flare-ups in past decades, as does the humanitarian disaster for Palestinians.
From the earliest days of the conflict, Arab governments, particularly Egypt and Jordan, said Palestinians must not be driven from land where they want to make a future state, which would include the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Like Palestinians, they fear any mass movement across the border would further undermine prospects for a “two-state solution” — the idea of creating a state of Palestine next to Israel — and leave Arab nations dealing with the consequences.

WHAT HAVE ISRAEL’S GOVERNMENT AND ITS POLITICIANS SAID?
Israel’s then-Foreign Minister Israel Katz, now serving as defense minister, said on Feb. 16, 2024, that Israel had no plans to deport Palestinians from Gaza. Israel would coordinate with Egypt on Palestinian refugees and find a way to not harm Egypt’s interests, Katz added.
However, comments by some in the Israeli government have stoked Palestinian and Arab fears of a new Nakba. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has repeatedly called for a policy of “encourging the migration” of Palestinians from Gaza and for Israel to impose military rule in the territory.

BAGHDAD: Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan called for combined regional efforts to combat outlawed Kurdish fighters in Iraq and neighboring Syria during a visit to Baghdad on Sunday.

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, also known as PKK, which has fought a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state, holds positions in Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, which also hosts Turkish military bases.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkiye and its Western allies, and Ankara accuses Kurdish forces in Syria of links to the outlawed group.

“I want to emphasize this fact in the strongest way: The PKK is targeting Turkiye, Iraq and Syria,” Fidan said in a press conference with his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein.

“We must combine all our resources and destroy both Daesh and the PKK,” he added.

Fidan’s visit comes after two Iraqi border guards were killed Friday near the Turkish border in a shooting that Baghdad blamed on the PKK. After the attack, Ankara vowed to work with Iraq to secure their common frontier.

Turkiye regularly launches strikes against the PKK in Iraq and Kurdish fighters in Syria.

Baghdad has recently sharpened its tone against the PKK, and last year it quietly listed the group as a “banned organization” — though Ankara demands the Iraqi government do more in the fight against the militant group.

“Our ultimate expectation from Iraq is that it recognizes the PKK, which it has declared a banned organization, as a terrorist organization as well,” Fidan said.

In August, Baghdad and Ankara signed a military cooperation deal to establish joint command and training centers with the aim of fighting the PKK.

The foreign ministers also discussed the fight against Daesh on the Iraqi-Syrian border, Hussein said during the press conference, as well as the situation in Syria, where former leader Bashar Assad was toppled in December.

“There are clear understandings between ... Turkiye and Iraq on how to address” the situation there, he said, adding that Baghdad was in contact with the new Syrian authorities and was “trying to coordinate on many issues.”

Earlier this month, Fidan threatened to launch a military operation against Kurdish forces in Syria, where Turkiye has carried out successive ground operations to push the fighters away from its border.

The Kurdish forces there are seen by the West as essential in the fight against Daesh.