Uncertainty abounds in Gaza cease-fire

Israeli warnings to resume "intense fighting" in the Gaza Strip after a Saturday deadline and insistence of United States President Donald Trump to take over Gaza and resettle Palestinians away are threatening a fragile cease-fire in the devastated enclave and injecting fear, according to officials and analysts.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Tuesday that his country would resume military operations in Palestinian territories if Israeli hostages were not returned by Saturday. He had echoed a similar ultimatum by Trump who said "all hell is going to break out" if Hamas fails to release the hostages.

Trump made the threat after Hamas' armed wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, announced on Monday that the planned release of Israeli captives set for Saturday would be postponed. Hamas accused Israel on Tuesday of failing to uphold its commitments under the cease-fire.

Hamas also labeled Trump and his plan to empty Gaza as "racist "and "a call for ethnic cleansing". In a statement on Telegram, Hamas accused Trump of seeking to "liquidate the Palestinian cause and deny the national rights of the Palestinian people".

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said on Wednesday in Dubai that it is "unacceptable" for the region to displace Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

"The focus today is on Gaza and tomorrow it will shift to the West Bank with the objective of emptying Palestine of its historical inhabitants," he said at the World Governments Summit in the UAE. "It's unacceptable for the Arab world, which has fought this idea for 100 years."

In a statement, Egypt said on Tuesday that it plans to present a comprehensive Gaza reconstruction plan designed to ensure Palestinians remain on their land.

Endangering peace

Egypt said "any vision for resolving the Palestinian cause must take into account the need to avoid endangering the gains of peace in the region" while simultaneously addressing the root cause of the conflict "by ending Israel's occupation of Palestinian land and implementing the two-state solution".

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen, in a telephone talk on Tuesday, also emphasized the right of Palestinians in Gaza against displacement elsewhere. Sisi's scheduled visit to Washington on Feb 18 could be postponed, according to Middle East News Agency.

King Abdullah II of Jordan on Tuesday reiterated on social media Jordan's steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged on social media to "avoid at all costs resumption of hostilities in Gaza that would lead to immense tragedy".

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have stressed the legitimacy and need for establishing a sovereign Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Belal Alakhras, a political analyst and researcher at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, told China Daily that these developments are a pivotal moment for the Middle East region as they involve many regional countries and have international repercussions — as the world is following and examining Trump's foreign policy.

But the momentum "dissipated "following the US president's plans to push Palestinians out of Gaza and establish control over the territory, evolving into a situation where Trump has taken an "unequivocally pro-Israeli stance", opposing regional consensus and supporting Israel's extreme agenda of Palestinian displacement. "Trump's stance and threats have undermined the very cease-fire agreement his administration helped broker," he said.

"Indeed, these developments have significantly bolstered the credibility of Palestinian movements' long-standing position that the peace process and two-state solution proposals lacked genuine commitment from Israel and Western powers, with actions consistently contradicting diplomatic statements," Alakhras added.

They are likely to generate more support for Palestinians and elevate the Palestinian issue to a more prominent global issue, he said.