Arab ministers agree to continue consultations with Trump envoy on Egypt’s Gaza plan

WASHINGTON  -  US President Donald Trump says no one is expelling anyone from Gaza. During an Oval Office spray with Ireland’s Prime Minister Michael Martin in the Oval Office, a reporter asks the Irish leader about Trump’s plan to “to expel Palestinians out of Gaza.” “Nobody’s expelling any Palestinians,” Trump pipes in. The comment appears to amount to an about-face for Trump who when introducing his proposal to take over Gaza last month said that all of the Strip’s population of roughly 2 million people would be permanently relocated. When pressed last month as to whether he would relocate Palestinians by force, Trump insisted that no people in Gaza actually want to remain there. Earlier in today’s Oval Office spray, Trump laments that people are forgetting what Hamas did on October 7. He reiterates the brutal treatment of the hostages by the terror group. “We’re working hard with Israel… to see [how] we can solve the problem,” Trump says. He again calls Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer a “Palestinian.” “He used to be Jewish. He’s not Jewish anymore,” Trump says. The International Court of Justice will hold hearings next month on Israel’s humanitarian obligations towards Palestinians, amid claims the Israeli government is blocking aid access to Gaza. The United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution in December requesting that the world body’s top court give an advisory opinion on the matter.

The hearings will open on April 28 at the court’s seat in The Hague, it says in a statement. The resolution, submitted by Norway in October, was adopted by a large majority. It calls on the ICJ to clarify what Israel is required to do to “ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies essential to the survival of the Palestinian civilian population.” Although the ICJ’s decision are legally binding, the court has no concrete means to enforce them. But they increase the diplomatic pressure on Israel. Norway’s initiative was triggered by an Israeli law banning from the end of January the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA from operating on Israeli soil and coordinating with the Israeli government. Meanwhile, Arab foreign ministers agreed to continue consultations with US special envoy to the Mideast Steve Witkoff regarding Egypt’s plan for the post-war management of Gaza. The group of top Arab diplomats met with Witkoff earlier today and issued a joint statement about their plan to continue talks with him shortly afterward. Notably joining the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt and Jordan is Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s top aide Hussein al-Sheikh. Sheikh met with Witkoff in Riyadh in January.