Deir Al-Balah in Gaza Strip- Over the past 15 months, Saeed Abu Elaish's wife, two daughters of his extended family and two dozen others were killed by an Israeli air strike. His house in northern Gaza was destroyed. He and the surviving family now live in a tent in the rubble in his home.

But he said he would not be driven away after President Donald Trump calls for the transfer of all Palestinians from Gaza so that the United States can take over damaged territory and rebuild it for others. Rights groups said his comments were fought against calls for “ethnic purges” and forced deportation.

“We absolutely refuse and will reject any plans to expel us from our land and transfer us to our land,” he said in the Jabbaria refugee camp.

Trump's call for a reduction in Gaza shocked the Palestinians. Thousands of people in the territory rushed back home (even if destroyed) once they could arrive with a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas last month.

Although some experts speculate that Trump's proposal may be a negotiating strategy, Palestinians in the region believe it is to erase them entirely from their homes, continuing the expulsion and displaced Palestinians from their homes. and displacement. Israel was in the war around its creation in 1948.

The incident is known among Palestinians as “Nakba”, which is the Arabic word for “disaster.” Trump's statement - a wild swing compared to years of U.S. policy - combines with calls from Israeli far-right politicians to drive Palestinians out of Gaza, especially Egypt.

"We don't want to repeat the tragedy of our ancestors," said health care worker Abu Elaish.

Like many, Abu Elaish can point to his family’s experiences. He said that in May 1948, Israeli troops expelled his grandparents and other Palestinians and demolished the houses in the village of Hoy outside the Gaza Strip in what is now southern Israel. The family was relocated to the Jabaliya camp in Gaza, which has developed into a densely built urban community for decades. Israeli forces have upgraded much of the region in most parts of the region in a fierce battle with Hamas militants in recent months.

Mustafa al-Gazzar was 5 years old when his family and other residents were forced to flee Israeli troops in 1948 and attacked them, which is now the town of Yabneh in central Israel.

Now in his 80s, he sat outside his home in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, flattened by air strikes and said he was unthinkable after surviving the war for 15 months.

"You're crazy, do you think I'll leave?" he said. "You think you'll expel me and bring other people with me? ...I'd rather live in a tent under the rubble. I won't leave. Put it in your brain."

"I shouldn't be sent abroad, but I'm back to the original land where I was born and will die." He said Trump should seek a two-country solution. "It is an ideal, clear solution, Israeli peace lives side by side with Palestinians," he said.

In a comment Tuesday with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said Palestinians from Gaza should be relocated on land in Egypt, Jordan or elsewhere, assured them "beautiful." place". Both Egypt and Jordan rejected Trump's call for the relocalization of Palestinians on the soil.

Trump said the United States will take over Gaza and rebuild it into the "people of the world" of the "Middle Eastern Riviera", refuting the Palestinians' refusal to leave or want to return.

Amna Omar, 71, from the small town of Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, called Trump a "madman."

Omar was able to go to Egypt during the war after her husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. In Cairo, doctors told them that his cancer had not been treated for too long and he died in October.

She said she intends to go home as soon as possible like other Palestinians in Egypt.

"Gaza is our land, our home. We as Gazans are entitled to the land and hope to rebuild it," she said. "I don't want to die in Egypt like my husband did. I want to die at home."

The Palestinians showed strong determination to return home after almost the entire population was displaced by war. The joyful crowd returned to northern Gaza and Rafa, both of which were destroyed by Israeli bombing and ground criminals.

As their neighborhoods are reduced to rubble landscapes, many returnees are homeless, with very little water, and electricity is largely non-existent in most areas. Nevertheless, for most people, destruction does not reduce their willingness to stay.

"Even if it means living in the ruins of our house, it's better than living in other places," said Ibrahim Abu Rizk. "For a year and a half, we've been Massacre, bomb and destroy, just leave like that?”

The ceasefire agreement between the United States, Egypt and Qatar calls for the return of Palestinians to homeland, as well as large-scale international reconstruction efforts in its third phase - assuming that Israel and Hamas can reach an agreement on who will manage the territory.

International law prohibits forced evacuation of people. Israeli rights group B'tSelem said Trump's statement "formed a call for ethnic cleansing by uprooting and forcibly diverting 2 million people. This is a roadmap for Trump and Netanyahu for use in the Gaza Strip The second Palestinian. ”

Palestinian refugees have long demanded that they are allowed to return to their current Israeli houses, citing the right of refugees to return under international law. Israel believes that rights do not apply to Palestinians and says a massive return will end the Jewish majority in the country.

Throughout the 15-month war in Gaza, many Palestinians expressed concern that Israel’s goal was to push the population to neighboring Egypt. The government denied this goal, although some hard right members of the coalition demanded that Palestinians be encouraged to leave Gaza and restore Jewish settlements there. The Israeli-occupied West Bank (local locations of more than 500,000 settlers) also had violence for more than a year.

Palestinians have rejected responses to Trump’s appeals in the West Bank and surrounding Arab countries such as Jordan and Lebanon, which is also home to the large refugee population.

“If he wants to replace the population of Gaza,” Mohammed al-Amiri, a resident of the West Bank city of Ramala, Israel, in a village with a declining population.”

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Magdy reported from Cairo and Frankel in Jerusalem. Associated Press journalists contributed to the report in Rafah and Lee Keath of Cairo.