After the Israeli offensive that killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, most of them children and women, and the near-total destruction of the besieged Gaza Strip, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are returning in a solemn move to northern Gaza as part of the first phase of a long-awaited ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

While US President Donald Trump, who took the lead in brokering a ceasefire, said in his inauguration speech 24 hours after the truce began that he wanted to be a peacemaker, just hours after promising peace and unity, Trump’s actions and rhetoric changed. Immediately after his inauguration, he signed an executive order lifting sanctions that Biden had imposed on Israeli settlers in the West Bank with the aim of reducing violence against Palestinians.

“In the West Bank, Israeli settlers have been regularly attacking Palestinian civilians, forcing them off their land, doing things like burning farms and olive groves, and often hurting or killing Palestinians,” The Intercept’s Jonah Valdez described. “With Trump lifting those sanctions, Israel gets another license to continue its violent land grabs from Palestinians.”

In the days that followed, Trump suggested moving Palestinians from Gaza to Jordan and Egypt, saying, “We just have to clean this thing up.” Before the election, Trump had also floated the idea of rebuilding Gaza to rival Monaco as a tourist destination.

It is noteworthy that the brutal and continuous Israeli bombing destroyed or damaged 70 percent of all buildings and structures in Gaza.

Experts say it could take more than 20 years to clear the rubble caused by 15 months of devastating war. Another major problem with reconstruction, they believe, is that one of Gaza's largest aid providers, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), was banned from entering Gaza as of Thursday, January 30.

Meanwhile, Trump issued an executive order to halt foreign aid, raising concerns about future U.S. involvement in supporting the United Nations. This began under Biden, and Trump came in and issued this freeze on all foreign humanitarian aid.

While there is no indication that Trump will actually slow down support for the Israeli military, or resume shipping 2,000-pound bombs to Israel that have been known to take a devastating toll on civilians in Gaza, experts believe that as the first foreign leader to visit Trump after his inauguration, Benjamin Netanyahu, who will meet Trump at the White House on Tuesday, February 4, comes with a list of demands that he believes he deserves.

According to some, Netanyahu will demand a clear and strong commitment from Trump to support Netanyahu's return to war after the end of the truce deal phase in order to preserve his government coalition, especially since this has been announced by members of his government, such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who announces this daily.

Netanyahu will discuss with Trump different scenarios for forcibly displacing Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt and Jordan.

US President Trump insisted on Thursday that Jordan and Egypt would accept the displaced from Gaza despite strong objections from the two Arab countries, threatening to use the support the United States provides to both countries as a means of blackmailing them.

It is noteworthy that a joint Arab statement on Saturday affirmed "continued full support for the steadfastness of the Palestinian people on their land and their adherence to legitimate rights in accordance with international law."

This came during a meeting in Cairo today at the level of foreign ministers, attended by Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the Secretary-General of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the Secretary-General of the Arab League.

The statement issued from Cairo stated, “We reject any infringement of these inalienable rights, whether through settlement activities, expulsion and demolition of homes, annexation of land, or by evacuating that land of its owners through displacement or encouraging the transfer or uprooting of Palestinians from their land in any way or under any circumstances or justifications.”

The joint statement added that the participants agreed to "emphasize the important and appreciated role of the United States in achieving this agreement, and look forward to working with the administration of US President Trump to achieve a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East in accordance with the two-state solution, and to work to free the region from conflicts."

Regarding the Gaza agreement, the statement stressed "the importance of sustaining the ceasefire, ensuring the access of humanitarian support to all parts of the Gaza Strip and removing all obstacles to the entry of all humanitarian aid."