Arab Nations Oppose Removing Palestinians from Gaza in Letter to US 

Two boys hold Palestinian flags as they arrive to watch Hamas fighters handover an Israeli-American hostage to a Red Cross team in Gaza City on February 1, 2025, as part of the fourth hostage-prisoner exchange. (AFP)
Two boys hold Palestinian flags as they arrive to watch Hamas fighters handover an Israeli-American hostage to a Red Cross team in Gaza City on February 1, 2025, as part of the fourth hostage-prisoner exchange. (AFP)
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Arab Nations Oppose Removing Palestinians from Gaza in Letter to US 

Two boys hold Palestinian flags as they arrive to watch Hamas fighters handover an Israeli-American hostage to a Red Cross team in Gaza City on February 1, 2025, as part of the fourth hostage-prisoner exchange. (AFP)
Two boys hold Palestinian flags as they arrive to watch Hamas fighters handover an Israeli-American hostage to a Red Cross team in Gaza City on February 1, 2025, as part of the fourth hostage-prisoner exchange. (AFP)

Five Arab foreign ministers and a senior Palestinian official sent a joint letter to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio opposing plans to displace Palestinians from Gaza, as suggested by President Donald Trump in late January.

The letter was sent on Monday and signed by the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Jordan and Qatar, as well as Palestinian presidential adviser Hussein al-Sheikh. It was reported first by Axios, which said the top diplomats met in Cairo over the weekend.

Trump first floated the suggestion of Jordan and Egypt taking in Palestinians from Gaza on Jan. 25. When asked if he was suggesting that as a long-term or short-term solution, the president said: "Could be either."

The US president's comments echoed long-standing Palestinian fears of being permanently driven from their homes and were labeled as a proposal of ethnic cleansing by critics. Jordan, Egypt and other Arab nations opposed the proposal.

"Reconstruction in Gaza should be through direct engagement with and participation of the people of Gaza. Palestinians will live in their land and help rebuild it," the letter said.

"And they should not be stripped of their agency during reconstruction as they must take ownership of the process with the support of the international community."

Israel's military assault on Gaza has killed over 47,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza health ministry, and led to accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies. The fighting has currently paused amid a fragile ceasefire.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023, when Palestinian Hamas gunmen attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.



UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
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UN Agency Says Israel Shuts 4 Schools in East Jerusalem

A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)
A boy stands outside the gate of the Kalandia vocational training center (KTC), run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which was raided by Israeli forces earlier at the Qalandiya camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank on February 18, 2025. (AFP)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says Israeli forces raided four of its schools in east Jerusalem, ordering their closure.

Israel has severed all ties with the agency, known as UNRWA, and bars it from operating in its territory. It says the agency allowed itself to be infiltrated by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, allegations denied by UN officials.

UNRWA said police entered a training center by force on Tuesday, firing tear gas and sound grenades and ordering its evacuation. It said 350 students and 30 staff were present during the raid on the Qalandiya Training Center.

It said police and city officials ordered the closure of three other schools in east Jerusalem, two of which proceeded with the school day.

Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne said police did not enter the UN buildings and that Jerusalem municipal authorities carried out the closures. He said police were deployed to protect the city workers, using “riot dispersal” means in one case where a crowd threw stones at them outside a UN facility.

Roland Friedrich, UNRWA director for the occupied West Bank, including east Jerusalem, said the raids were an “unacceptable violation of United Nations privileges and immunities,” and a “denial of the right to education for children and trainees.”