‘Israel will keep invading – with more ease’: Gaza dreads Trump presidency

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For the past 13 months, Ahmed Jarad has been living with the dim hope that he might one day return to his home in Beit Lahiya, a village in the north of the Gaza Strip.

But on Wednesday, as former US President Donald Trump declared his triumphant return to the White House following a close race against Vice President Kamala Harris, Jarad said his dream of returning to his hometown, currently being pounded by Israel and its stranded population sealed off from the south, has been crushed.

The 43-year-old left his home exactly a year ago – in November 2023 – fleeing to al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. One month earlier, Israel launched its war on Gaza after Hamas, the political and military group that rules the Strip, led an assault on army outposts and villages in southern Israel, leaving 1,139 people dead and taking more than 250 captive.

Since then, Israel has subjected Gaza to near-relentless bombardments and ground invasions. More than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed – with thousands more missing and presumed dead under the rubble – while nearly all of the enclave’s 2.3 million population has been displaced.

Israeli officials maintain that the war is necessary to eliminate Hamas, which has been categorised as a “terrorist group” by most Western countries. But Palestinians, the United Nations and human rights defenders point to the fact that most of the victims of the war are women and children.

Jarad said he is certain that Israel’s brutality will only worsen once Trump, who enjoyed a close relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his first presidency, is once again sworn in as leader of the world’s strongest superpower.

“Trump and Netanyahu are an evil alliance against the Palestinians and our fate will be very difficult, not only in the fateful issues but also in our daily concerns,” Jarad told Al Jazeera from his tattered tent in al-Mawasi, where he now lives with his wife and their five children.

Netanyahu, who is facing pressure both domestically and internationally to bring an end to the war that has spilled over into Lebanon and threatens to escalate into all-out conflict between Israel and Iran, was quick to congratulate Trump after he claimed his victory on Wednesday.

Calling Trump’s election “history’s greatest comeback”, Netanyahu described Trump’s return as a “fresh start for America” and a “powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America”.

During Trump’s first four-year tenure as president from 2016 to 2020, the US embassy in Israel was relocated from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem – a significant move in the eyes of the Israeli government. Aid to Palestinians was cut – particularly to UNRWA, the UN’s Palestinian refugee aid agency, which Israel designated a terrorist group just days before the US election.

Trump’s administration also overlooked the building of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank despite international condemnation, and brokered the “Abraham Accords” which saw several Arab countries normalising ties with Israel.

Since the war on Gaza began in October last year, Democratic President Joe Biden has been unwavering in his support of Israel, continuing to send military aid and reaffirming Israel’s “right to protect itself”.

But relations between Netanyahu and Biden have soured somewhat over worsening regional tensions and the failure to reach any of the ceasefire deals, which the Americans have been involved in negotiating. Netanyahu now says that a Trump presidency could signal a new leaf in Israeli-American relations.

Like many Palestinians, particularly those trapped in Gaza, Jarad says he dreads this will be at their cost.

“This is a sad day for Palestinians,” he said, despairing. “Trump will endorse Netanyahu’s free hand regarding the possibility of the return of settlements to the Gaza Strip and even the displacement of large numbers of Palestinians outside it.”

“We hoped to return to the north and now all our hopes have been shattered,” he said.

Trump and Netanyahu: ‘Peas in a pod’

Zakia Hilal, a 70-year-old physician, has resorted to humour to get through the devastation of the war on Gaza. She was listening to the radio for news of the US election with her husband, children and grandchildren – all gathered together in their tent in al-Mawasi.

As soon as they heard the news that Trump had won, she cried: “Two peas in a pod,” referring to Netanyahu and Trump. “Our situation wasn’t bad enough? Trump had to come to complete it,” she said sarcastically.

Hilal, who is originally from Rafah in the south of Gaza, was forced to leave her home in May when Israeli troops commenced a ground operation on May 6 into the southernmost part of the enclave, where most of the population had taken shelter.

Since then, the Rafah border crossing to Egypt, the main gateway through which humanitarian aid normally trickles through, has been shut. Humanitarian aid accessing the besieged enclave through other smaller crossings has dropped to its lowest levels since the beginning of the war.

“We are certainly headed for a very difficult period. What’s coming ahead may be even worse than what we’ve experienced so far,” Hilal told Al Jazeera. “It is true that American administrations do not differ in supporting Israel, but some are more severe and more intense than others, like Trump.”

In his victory speech in Florida, Trump said he is “going to stop wars”, something which many Arab Americans criticised Biden’s administration for failing to do. According to reports from The Times of Israel, Trump has expressed concerns about the potential for a prolonged conflict in Gaza. In July, he reportedly told Netanyahu in a meeting that the dispute should ideally be resolved by the time he takes office in January 2025.

“I told Bibi [Netanyahu], we don’t want endless wars, especially ones that drag America into them,” Trump said, referencing the private conversation. How he plans to “end” this one is unclear and fills Palestinians who spoke to Al Jazeera on Wednesday with fear.

Jehad Malaka, a researcher in international relations at the Gaza-based research organisation, the Palestinian Planning Centre, does not expect Trump’s upcoming administration to be much different from Biden’s in terms of support for Israel.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from the tent he shares with his family in al-Mawasi, where they fled from northern Gaza, Malaka said the Biden administration did nothing for the Palestinians during the war, nor did it reverse any of the decisions taken during Trump’s first presidency.

“Trump uses rough tools, and Biden and the Democrats resort to soft tools, but the politics are the same,” he said.

He added, “Biden did not make any decision in favour of the Palestinians and was unable to achieve a ceasefire. He did not change the reality of the decisions of his predecessor Trump at all. The positions of the two administrations regarding Israel are the same and identical, and they put its interests above all other considerations.”

Malaka, however, said he does not believe that Trump would endorse the forced removal of Gaza Palestinians from the entire enclave and hopes that perhaps the new president may bring a swifter, albeit extremely painful, end to the war.

“Given Trump’s power of pressure and influence over Netanyahu, he may be able to open a horizon for a partial solution to the Palestinian issue, and he is able to pressure Netanyahu, while Biden did not succeed in pressuring for a single day of calm,” he said.

Ahmed Fayyad, 45, an independent researcher in Israeli affairs who has taken refuge in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, is less optimistic. He said he believes Trump’s influence will be entirely harmful tor Palestinians as a whole, and Gaza Palestinians, in particular.

“Trump’s election only means that Netanyahu will continue his plans of invading Gaza and evicting its people, but with less pressure and more ease,” Fayyed, who fled to Deir el-Balah to escape intense bombing in eastern Khan Younis nearly a year ago, said.

Trump is “a more dominating figure” whose “influence on all parties would mean Netanyahu will get away with doing what he wanted all along, which is to conquer Gaza”, he said.

“Amidst the weakened Palestinian front, and absence of any Arab unity and solidarity, the whole Palestinian cause faces its worst threat yet.”

This piece has been published in collaboration with Egab.

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