Gazans in Egypt reject displacement, grapple with decision when to go home

CAIRO - Weeks into the ceasefire in Gaza, thousands of Palestinians who left for neighbouring Egypt are grappling with the question of when they might go home, though they reject the prospect of a mass displacement proposed by US President Donald Trump.

“A lot of people are torn, and I am one of them,” said Ms 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?”

Whether or not she is able to go home soon, she does not want people like her to be accepted as residents outside Palestinian land.

"We, the people of Gaza, can only live in Gaza," she said. "If they give us residencies, the cause will be lost."

A proposal by Mr Trump

that much of the population of Gaza be cleared out and residents sent en masse to Egypt and Jordan has been universally denounced across the Arab world as a form of ethnic cleansing.

“You’re talking about a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” Mr Trump said.

Asked if it would a temporary or long term solution, he said: “Could be either.”

Egypt says it will never participate in the mass displacement of Palestinians, which President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi described as an “act of injustice”.

But there are already about 100,000 Palestinians in Egypt, who say they do not know how or when they will be able to return.

During the war in Gaza, the border was mostly sealed and the vast majority of the 2.3 million residents were made homeless and forced into temporary shelters within the territory.

There were however months when some people were permitted to leave, including Palestinians with foreign passports, their close relatives or severely ill patients evacuated for humanitarian reasons.

Most have no long-term permission to stay in Egypt and view their stays as temporary, surviving on small trade or savings.

The ceasefire agreement

that paused the fighting in January has yet to resolve their fate.

Some say they will return as soon as they have a chance.

“There is nothing better than one’s country and land,” said Mr Hussien Farahat, a father of two.

But others say the personal decision is more complicated, without a home to go back to.

“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 Ms 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.

Israel launched its assault on Gaza

after Hamas fighters stormed Israeli towns, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, Israel’s campaign has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, according to the health authorities there, driven most Gazans from their homes and laid swathes of the territory to waste.

While Gazans in Egypt may vary in their personal plans, all said they reject any proposal by Mr Trump to clear large numbers of Palestinians from Gaza.

“This is our land, and it’s not his to control us,” said Mr Fares Mahmoud, another Gazan in Cairo. “It’s our land, we leave it and go back to it when we want.” REUTERS