Arab League says any plan to uproot Palestinians from Gaza would be ‘ethnic cleansing’

Displaced Palestinians with their belongings gather near a roadblock on Salah al-Din Street as they wait to return to their homes in the northern part of the Gaza Strip on Jan. 26, 2025, days after the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas came into effect. (AP)
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Updated 27 January 2025
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Arab League says any plan to uproot Palestinians from Gaza would be ‘ethnic cleansing’

  • The regional bloc was reacting to US President Trump's suggestion to “clean out” the Gaza Strip and move its population to Egypt and Jordan
  • Egyptian President El-Sisi has repeatedly warned that any planned displacement would threaten Egypt’s national security

CAIRO: The Arab League on Sunday warned against “attempts to uproot the Palestinian people from their land,” after US President Donald Trump suggested a plan to “clean out” the Gaza Strip and move its population to Egypt and Jordan.
“The forced displacement and eviction of people from their land can only be called ethnic cleansing,” the regional bloc’s general secretariat said in a statement.

“Attempts to uproot the Palestinian people from their land, whether by displacement, annexation or settlement expansion, have been proven to fail in the past,” the statement added.
Earlier Sunday, Egypt vehemently expressed its objection to Trump's suggestion.

Cairo’s foreign ministry in a statement expressed Egypt’s “continued support for the steadfastness of the Palestinian people on their land.”
It “rejected any infringement on those inalienable rights, whether by settlement or annexation of land, or by the depopulation of that land of its people through displacement, encouraged transfer or the uprooting of Palestinians from their land, whether temporarily or long-term.”
After 15 months of war, Trump said Gaza had become a “demolition site” and he would “like Egypt to take people, and I’d like Jordan to take people.”
Moving Gaza’s inhabitants could be done “temporarily or could be long term,” he said.
Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023 both countries have warned of plans to displace Palestinians from Gaza into neighboring Egypt and from the West Bank into Jordan.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, with whom Trump said he would speak on Sunday, has repeatedly warned that said displacement would aim to “eradicate the cause for Palestinian statehood.”
El-Sisi has described the prospect as a “red line” that would threaten Egypt’s national security.
The Egyptian foreign ministry on Sunday urged the implementation of the “two-state solution,” which Cairo has said would become impossible if Palestinians were removed from their territories.
 


Putin thanks UAE’s president for Ukraine mediation efforts

Updated 30 January 2026
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Putin thanks UAE’s president for Ukraine mediation efforts

  • Russian president meets Emirati counterpart, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, in Moscow for talks spanning international affairs and bilateral trade
  • Another round of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine is due to take place in Abu Dhabi on Sunday

LONDON: Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked his counterpart from the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, on Thursday for his mediation efforts on the war in Ukraine.

As Russian and Ukrainian negotiators prepare for another round of peace talks, due to take place in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, the Emirati president met the Russian leader at the Kremlin during an official visit to Moscow.

Putin “expressed his appreciation to the UAE for hosting the trilateral talks involving Russia, Ukraine and the United States,” the Emirates News Agency reported.

Sheikh Mohammed said he was proud to have helped mediate prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine, and the UAE was ready to “assist all constructive efforts” regarding important humanitarian matters.

The leaders also discussed the latest developments in the Middle East. Regarding the conflict between Israel and Palestine, they said there was an “urgent need to intensify efforts to achieve a clear path towards a just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution.”

Other topics included ways in which bilateral cooperation might be strengthened in areas such as trade, investment, technology, space and energy.

Russia and the UAE have moved to deepen ties in recent years. They signed two key trade and economic partnership agreements last summer.