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Land grab Defiance in the face of 'Riviera' plan
The Guardian Weekly
|February 21, 2025
One month after the announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinians of Gaza have begun improvising a new life amid the wreckage of the old.
Benjamin Netanyahu's government and Hamas are still playing a game of nerves, even though the schedule laid down in the ceasefire agreement went ahead last Saturday. Three more hostages, lair Horn, Sasha Troufanov and Sagui Dekel-Chen, were released by Palestinian militant groups in return for the release of 369 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel on 15 February.
Now there is an unanticipated blot hanging over Gaza's already clouded future. Donald Trump's bizarre plan for the US to "own" Gaza, empty the territory of its 2.2 million people, and build a "Riviera of the Middle East" on their land. The reactions of everyone the Guardian talked to in Gaza were consistent: if one of the most destructive bombing campaigns in history failed to drive them from their homes, then the US real estate tycoon turned president would also surely fail.
This story is from the February 21, 2025 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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