Trump makes our situation worse: Palestinian, Lebanese victims of Israel’s wars | Israel-Palestine conflict news

Deir el-Balah, Gaza, Palestine and Beirut, Lebanon – Palestinian and Lebanese civilians are bracing for more devastation when Donald Trump begins his second term as President of the United States in January.

As millions of Trump supporters celebrate his victory, many in the Middle East watch with trepidation.

In Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon, there are fears that Israel’s loyal allies will encourage its prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the far-right coalition government to escalate regional conflicts and destroy any possibility of Palestinian self-determination.

“I have no trust in America,” said Abu Ali, an 87-year-old in Gaza who, like most people there, has been driven from his home. “I expect the war in Gaza to get even worse (under Trump).”

The outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden has supported Israel in its campaign in Gaza.

Since the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,139 people were killed and 250 captured, Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza – with the help of US weapons – has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians and displaced almost all uproot the population. 2.3 million people.

The Palestinians who fear that Trump will now greenlight plans to expel them from the Strip.

The Republican president-elect has accused Biden, a Democrat, of holding Israel back in Gaza and made a vague promise to help Israel “finish the job” if re-elected.

“I don’t know if the situation will improve under Trump. He might just (allow Israel) to deport us all (from Gaza) instead of killing us,” Abu Mohamad said with a hint of sarcasm from a displacement camp in Gaza.

Abu Ali believes that the Palestinians are at the mercy of whoever is in power in the United States.

As a survivor of the Nakba (“the catastrophe”), the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians by Zionist militias during the creation of Israel in 1948, he said he has witnessed several American presidents support Israeli atrocities against his people.

He expects this trend to continue under Trump and emphasized that neither the Nakba nor Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza should be referred to as a “war.”

“There are no wars (between Israel and Palestine),” he told Al Jazeera. “It was not a war then. And this is not a war (in Gaza). It is a genocide.”

The view from Lebanon

In Lebanon, many expect Trump to maintain or increase support for Israel’s war effort.

Israel claims to be fighting the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, but observers accuse Israel of waging a war against the country’s Shia community.

In Lebanon, political positions are allocated proportionally based on the country’s religious makeup. The president is always a Maronite Christian, the prime minister is a Sunni Muslim and the speaker of the parliament is a Shia Muslim.

Since Lebanon’s civil war, which lasted from 1975 to 1990, Hezbollah has consolidated control over the Shia community by blending religion, identity and resistance into a political movement that has resonated with many people. Hezbollah has also repressed opponents.

Over the past month, Israel has escalated its war against Hezbollah by bombing towns and cities in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. Residents from entire villages and districts have been uprooted by Israeli fire, which has razed their homes and raised fears of permanent displacement.

Ali Saleem, who was forced out of the southern city of Sour, said the war will continue under Trump. He said the president-elect may present a ceasefire proposal that is favorable to Israel but not to Hezbollah or Lebanon.

“Trump will put an offer on the table and he will say, ‘Do you want to end the war or not?'” Selim, 30, told Al Jazeera. “If we say no, then the war will continue.”

Ali Aloweeya, 44, added that Trump is likely to defend “Zionist interests” in the region.

He fears that Trump will even allow Israel to try to build illegal settlements in southern Lebanon, as some far-right Israeli activists and political officials have called for.

“If Trump returns and works again for the interests of the Israelis, then we will resist. We are a people of resistance.”

Fear of annexation

During Trump’s first term as president from 2017 to 2021, he adopted measures that harmed Palestinians in the occupied territory and the surrounding region.

He cut off US funding to the United Nations Palestinian Relief Agency (UNRWA) and broke with decades of policy by moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The Palestinians saw the moves as an attempt to upend their right to return to their homeland – as set out in UN Resolution 194 – and force them to surrender occupied East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem and occupied Arab lands after defeating Arab armies in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Tasame Ramadan, a Palestinian human rights activist, now fears that Trump may allow Israel to annex large parts of the West Bank. Activists, analysts and rights groups said Israel has de facto already done so.

“As Palestinians, we don’t expect anything positive from Trump. His decisions are unpredictable, but he often ignores Palestinian voices and his decisions have a lasting impact on Palestinians,” said Ramadan, who lives in Nablus, a city in the West Bank.

She noted that in 2019, Trump recognized Israel’s sovereignty over Syria’s occupied Golan Heights, in violation of international law.

She is bracing for similar policies that could hurt—even kill—Palestinian aspirations for self-determination.

“Trump’s action ignores our rights and our hope for freedom and for a sovereign Palestinian state,” she told Al Jazeera.

“But I also don’t think the Palestinians would be happy if (US Vice President Kamala) Harris had won the election. She deserved to lose because of her stance on the situation in Palestine and not stopping the genocide.

“In both cases, neither of these two (candidates) were our best options.”