Democracy Dies with Dictatorship
The Guardian
Feb 3, 2025
Netanyahu in Washington for ceasefire talks; Iran condemns Trump plan to relocate Palestinians
Israeli PM expected to begin discussions on second phase of ceasefire; Iran warns against ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Palestinian people
by Daniel Lavelle (now) and Yohannes Lowe (earlier)
Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington for Gaza ceasefire talks
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the Middle East.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to begin talks today on brokering a second phase of the ceasefire with Hamas, his office said, as he visits the new Trump administration in Washington.
Ahead of his departure, Netanyahu told reporters he would discuss “victory over Hamas”, without defining what this would mean in practical terms, contending with Iran and freeing all hostages when he meets with the US President on Tuesday.
It will be Trump’s first meeting with a foreign leader since returning to the White House in January, a prioritisation Netanyahu called “telling”.
“I think it’s a testimony to the strength of the Israeli-American alliance,” he said before boarding his flight.
US President Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, meets Benjamin Netanyahu in his Jerusalem office in January 2025. Photograph: Maayan Toaf/Israel Gpo/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock
He was welcomed to the US capital on Sunday night by Israel’s ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, who stressed the coming Trump-Netanyahu meeting would strengthen “the deep alliance between Israel and the United States and will enhance our cooperation”.
Netanyahu’s office said he would begin discussions with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff on Monday over terms for the second phase of the truce.
The initial, 42-day phase of the deal is due to end next month. The next stage is expected to cover the release of the remaining captives and to include discussions on a more permanent end to Israel’s war on Gaza.
Destroyed houses in Rafah refugee camp near the Philadelphi Corridor along the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, in Rafah. Photograph: Mohammed Saber/EPA
Despite the ceasefire agreement, the future of Palestinian refugees in Egypt remains uncertain.
Some are determined to return to what’s left of their homes as soon as they have the chance: “There is nothing better than one’s country and land,” Hussien Farahat, a father of two, told Reuters.
Meanwhile, others are inert, not knowing what to do or what will become of them, as they fear they may not have a home to go back to after Israel’s campaign of destruction, but they know they can’t stay where they are.
“Even if the war were over, we still do not know our fate and nobody mentioned those stranded in Cairo. Are we going back, or what will happen to us? And if we go back, what will happen to us? Our houses are gone,” said Abeer Kamal, who has lived in Cairo since November 2023 and sells handmade bags with her sisters.
“There is nothing, not my house, or my family, or siblings, nothing,” she said.
“Amnesty’s primary message is that genocide has been committed,” says charity’s secretary-general
Secretary General of Amnesty International Agnes Callamard shows the Amnesty International's The State of the World's Human Rights. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images
The head of Amnesty Internationl, Agnes Callamard, says Israel must be held accountable for the “genocide” that has been “committed,” adding that the current ceasefire must not mean that we forget what happened over the last 15 months.
“In fact, if you have any sense of the future, you need a reckoning for the past. Amnesty’s primary message is that genocide has been committed, and accountability must be delivered for it,” the secretary-general told Al Jazeera.
“Regarding the few states that refuse to acknowledge the evidence, it is clearly a position that is political, it is not a legal or empirical position.”
Callamard said Amnesty is paying close attention to the events unfolding in the West Bank, where the Israeli military has been carrying out raids every day for the last fortnight.
What we do know and what we have investigated in the past, demonstrate a multiplication of violations, including of the responsibility of Israel as the occupier. Let’s recall that Israel is unlawfully occupying the West Bank, and it has a responsibility under international law as a military occupier and clearly, every one of those responsibilities are being violated right now,” she said.Are we looking at war crimes? It will demand a number of analyses that we have not conducted yet. But there is absolutely no doubt that human rights violations are being committed, including the unlawful destruction of Palestinian property, and unlawful detention, and forced displacement. Will that amount to committing genocide? It will take more time to reach that conclusion.
Thousands of Palestinians reject the prospect of a mass displacement proposed by President Donald Trump, Reuters reports.
A lot of people are torn, and I am one of them,” said Shorouk, who earns a living selling Palestinian food in Cairo, going by the name Gaza Girl.Do you choose to go back and sit in the destruction and a place that still needs to be reconstructed or stay and go back when it is reconstructed?We, the people of Gaza, can only live in Gaza. If they give us residencies, the cause will be lost.”
Trump’s proposal to “clean out” Gaza and relocate millions of Palestinians to neighbouring Egypt and Jordan has been comprehensively denounced across the Middle East as ethnic cleansing.
“You’re talking about a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” Trump said. Asked if it would a temporary or long-term solution, he said: “Could be either”.
One hundred thousand Palestinians are sheltering in Egypt, and many say they do not know how or when they can go home. However, the majority of the 2.3 million Palestinians made homeless remain in temporary shelters within Gaza’s borders.