Trump has proposed relocating Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan, expressing his urge for a Gaza free of Palestinians.
He also wants to demolish current structures to make way for a Riviera-style development project.
Trump also wanted to put the Gaza Strip under US “ownership,” but longstanding international conventions against forced eviction and land seizure make such actions illegal.
Trump said long-term management of the Gaza Strip would be under United States control.
The United Nations and the International Court of Justice nevertheless see the Gaza Strip as one of Palestinian territories under Israeli military control.
This acknowledgement makes annexation and possession more difficult for Trump.
Trump has shown that he does not think the people of Gaza would come back once resettled.
International law supports the right of the displaced population to come back to the ground they left, so keeping them from returning would infringe upon it.
Under legal principles, displaced people should be permitted to come back to their living place.
Even if the evacuation were legal, sending individuals to a third nation would be unacceptable.
It would also contravene prevailing international standards against ethnic eradication or long-term displacement of groups from their native ground.
Evacuation cannot be used as an alibi for these behaviors, according to international law.
Warning that depopulating Gaza could render a Palestinian state unattainable, Secretary-General Guterres said.
He warned that those moves would introduce a great danger of permanently blocking the formation of a Palestinian nation.
This perspective emphasizes the more general geopolitical effects of Trump’s initiative in Gaza.
