The survivors of the Gaza Genocide have been returning to the shattered remains of where their homes once were. Over 560,000 people have returned to northern Gaza. Communities where generations of their families have lived.

Gaza, once a beautiful coastal Palestinian land, with sites of world archaeological importance, lies in devastation. Despite the obliteration of the infrastructure of their communities and the pollution of their lands, Palestinians are rebuilding.

Convicted felon, President of the USA, Donald Trump, met with Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu who has an international arrest warrant issued for his arrest for war crimes committed in Gaza. President Trump confirmed support for Israel and that the U.S. will take over Gaza from Israel. He said Palestinians will be removed from the land held by them for thousands of years to create his vision of “the Riviera of the Middle East.”

The intention to forcibly remove £2million people from Gaza has been internationally condemned. It is a war crime.

Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard said:

“President Trump’s comments dangerously dehumanize Palestinians, who for the last 16-months have been victims of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and for decades have been living under illegal occupation and apartheid. Most of Gaza’s Palestinians are descendants and survivors of the 1948 Nakba, they have already been repeatedly uprooted and dispossessed by Israel and denied their right of return yet have continued to struggle to remain on their lands and defend their human rights.

“Israel’s genocide in Gaza, including through unlawful killings, injuries and the deliberate infliction of conditions of life that are calculated to bring about their physical destruction, has been accompanied by an alarming rise in unlawful killings in the occupied West Bank, state-backed settler violence, mass land confiscation and arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, torture and other ill-treatment of Palestinians across the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel.

“President Trump repeatedly referenced the destruction, killing and unlivable conditions in Gaza calling it a ‘demolition site’ while seated next to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, yet he completely failed to mention the Israeli government’s responsibility for causing this devastation. Nor did he acknowledge the US government’s role in providing arms that have repeatedly been used to carry out deadly, unlawful attacks in Gaza.

“In the face of President Trump’s dangerous threats, it’s more important than ever for the rest of the international community to categorically reject these proposals and expedite diplomatic efforts, in line with international law, to end Israel’s unlawful occupation, dismantle apartheid and uphold human rights for Palestinians and Israelis. History has abundantly demonstrated that sidelining international law for political expediency is a recipe for the perpetuation of violations.

“Amnesty International also warns against the misuse of desperately needed humanitarian aid and reconstruction as a bargaining chip or as a means to coerce Palestinians in Gaza into leaving. No state is entitled to treat a protected population living under occupation as pawns in a geopolitical chess game.”

First Minister of Scotland, John Swinney added his condemnation to the US President’s Gaza plan. He said:

“After months of collective punishment and the death of over 40,000 in Gaza, any suggestion Palestinians should be removed from their home is unacceptable and dangerous. There must be no ethnic cleansing. Only a proper two state solution will bring lasting peace.”

Today the release will take place of more hostages by Hamas and Palestinians seized by Israel.

30 January:

• 3 Israeli and 5 Thai hostages were transferred from Gaza to Israeli authorities
• 110 Palestinian detainees, including 30 children, were released from Israeli detention centres. Palestinian detainees included 20 prisoners from the West Bank who were released to the Gaza Strip.

1 February:

• 3 Israeli hostages were transferred out of Gaza to Israel
• 183 Palestinian detainees were released from Israeli detention centres. Palestinian detainees included 111 people who were detained from the Gaza Strip after 7 October and seven detainees who were released to Egypt.

In total, since 19 January, ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross) has facilitated the return of 18 hostages and 583 Palestinian detainees. 

• 79 Israelis and foreign nationals remain captive in Gaza, including hostages who have been declared dead.
• 9,846 Palestinians remain in Israeli custody, including 1,734 sentenced prisoners, 2,941 remand detainees, 3,369 administrative detainees held without trial, and 1,802 people held as “unlawful combatants.” These figures do not include Palestinians from Gaza who have been detained by the Israeli military since 7 October 2023.

Hundreds of bodies are being retrieved from the rubble in Gaza.

Israel continues to deny access to materials which would allow farmers to grow food. These include seed kits, organic fertilizers and nylon sheets for greenhouses.  75 per cent of fields once used to grow crops in the Gaza Strip – as well as olive orchards – were damaged or destroyed as of 31 December 2024. Over half of greenhouses and about 67 per cent of water wells were damaged (mostly in Gaza governorate). Livestock losses reached 96 per cent, with only one per cent of poultry still alive and the fishing sector on the brink of collapse. It will take decades to rebuild the once successful farming and fishing sectors.

Also being restricted access by Israel are the necessary items to repair the sewage infrastructure and learning materials for schools.

President Trump then turned his attention to the International Criminal Court in The Hague and his executive order imposing sanctions on its officials for issuing an arrest warrant on the war criminal Netanyahu.  ICC President Judge Tomoko Akane said:

“The announced Executive Order is only the latest in a series of unprecedented and escalatory attacks aiming to undermine the Court’s ability to administer justice in all Situations. Such threats and coercive measures constitute serious attacks against the Court’s States Parties, the rule of law based international order and millions of victims.

“We firmly reject any attempt to influence the independence and the impartiality of the Court or to politicise our judicial function. We have and always will comply only with the law, under all circumstances.

“The ICC stands firmly by its personnel and pledges to continue providing justice and hope to millions of innocent victims of atrocities across the world, in all Situations before it, in the sole interest of human dignity. I call upon all those who share the values enshrined in the Statute to stand united in the Court’s defence: our 125 States Parties, civil society and all nations of the world.”

Elected by less than a third of those eligible to vote, President Trump’s slogan to ‘Make America Great Again’ has done everything but that in the eyes of the world community.

The small nation of Ireland has announced an allocation of €20 million to support the work of UNRWA, the United Nations’ Palestinian Relief Agency. As of 30 January, the Israeli Knesset legislation against UNRWA started to go into effect. This includes implementing a no-contact policy between UNRWA and the Israeli authorities. However, UNRWA operations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank continue, with tens of thousands of staff providing essential services and urgent humanitarian response.

The small nation of Norway transferred USD 24.5 million (NOK 275 million) to UNRWA. The Norwegian contribution will finance UNRWA’s efforts for six million Palestine refugees in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. 

UNRWA was established by the UN General Assembly in 1949. The organisation’s mandate is to protect and meet the basic needs of Palestine refugees, including food, education, healthcare and shelter.

O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

America ‘the land of the free and the home of the brave’, is no more. No longer leader of the ‘Free World’ but refuge of a convicted felon and a war criminal.

Fiona Grahame