The Palestinian Authority’s plan: Flood Israel with Gaza refugees who will “return to their cities” in Israel
While the future of the Gaza Strip is yet unknown, the Palestinian Authority is busy suggesting a solution that will destroy Israel as a Jewish state.
Reacting to US President Trump's plan to relocate the Gazan Arabs from the Gaza Strip (see note below), PA Chairman Abbas and other top PA leaders are calling for a "return" of Gazan "refugees" to places in Israel that they claim are "their homes and villages" in "Palestine":
PA Chairman Abbas: All Palestinian "refugees" in Gaza should "return to their cities" in Israel
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: "Today, 2.3 million Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip, of whom 1.5 million are refugees who sought refuge after they were expelled from their lands in 1948, during which they were subjected to more than 50 massacres by the Zionist terrorist gangs. If the Americans want a solution – the only place they [the refugees] need to return to is their cities and villages from which they were expelled during the Nakba (i.e., "the catastrophe," the establishment of Israel), to implement UN Resolution 194… He [US President Trump] who thinks he has the power to impose a new deal of the century (i.e., Trump's Middle East peace plan) or to exile our people and take control of any inch of our land, is deceiving himself."
[Official PA TV News, Feb. 15, 2025]
Abbas' advisor: Abbas said Gazans should return to "their homes and villages" in Israel
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash: "[PA] President Mahmoud Abbas clearly said: If there is a possibility of the Palestinians leaving the Gaza Strip, let it be to their cities and villages (i.e., in Israel) from which their [Palestinian] families were expelled in 1948… Because 75% of the residents of the Gaza Strip are originally refugees from historical Palestine. If they [Israelis] want them to leave, let them return to their homes, their cities, and their villages."
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, YouTube channel, March 22, 2025]
Abbas' advisor: "Refugees" from Gaza "should return" to Israel, all else is "unrealistic, immoral, illegal"
Al-Habbash: "More than 70% of the civilians living in the Gaza Strip are refugees whose families were expelled in 1948 during the Nakba. They were expelled from Palestine. Any uprooting of them, any leaving by them from the Gaza Strip should be a return to their cities and villages from which their families were expelled in 1948. Anything other than this is unrealistic, immoral, illegal, inhumane, unimplementable, and the Palestinians cannot agree to it."
[PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Advisor on Religious Affairs and Islamic Relations Mahmoud Al-Habbash, YouTube channel, Feb. 16, 2025]
Fatah Spokesman calls for "right of return": Gazans should "return to land and homes" in Israel
Fatah Spokesman Abd Al-Fattah Doleh: "If they (i.e., US and Israel) want to talk about something related to [Palestinian] migration, they should talk about the Palestinian people's right to return to its land and homes from which it was expelled. A large number of Gaza residents are refugees and uprooted people who need to return to their land that was occupied in 1948 and 1967. This is the only solution related to the Palestinian people's rights, only return."
[Al-Bawaba (Egyptian news website), YouTube channel, March 11, 2025]
The Fatah Revolutionary Council issued a summary statement from a convention in February 2025, in which they also stressed that:
"Given the uprooting plans, it is necessary to implement the right of return (i.e., into Israel), as explicitly stated in the UN General Assembly resolution 194 in 1949. Any return or population movement must be to the cities and villages from which our fathers and grandfathers were uprooted in 1948..."
[Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 23, 2025]
Human rights activist: Palestinians have "a right" to flood Israel, "to return to their homes in the 1948" territories
Director of the Al-Haq Institute for Human Rights Sha'awan Jabarin: "We believe that it is our people's right to enjoy freedom and independence, and it is the right of our refugees to return to their land and their homes, and I don't mean to return only to the 1967 [territories], but rather to their homes in the 1948 [territories] (i.e., all of sovereign Israel). I say here that this is a legal, legitimate, and fundamental right."
[Official PA TV News, March 31, 2025]
For many Arabs and Palestinians, the thought of Palestinian "refugees returning" heralds the end of Israel, something they consider a "historic right" and a "promise" that Allah will surely fulfill.
PA TV serves as platform for call for the "end of Israel"
Egyptian Al-Azhar Cleric Sheikh Yasser Mustafa Younes: "Allah willing, we will all merit to reclaim Jerusalem and all of Palestine from the occupation (i.e., Israel) and the Zionist entity, Allah willing, and they will disappear."
[Official PA TV, Palestine is Not for Sale, March 8, 2025]
The following is additional information, and a longer excerpt of Fatah's statement cited above:
"The Fatah movement welcomes the recently released brave prisoners and prepares them for integration into national and movement frameworks.
We will double our efforts to support the prisoners in the jails of the occupation (i.e., Israel), in order to stop the abuses and torture that the occupation uses against them -in the height of barbarism.
The Fatah movement reaffirms its solid commitment to support the families of the Martyrs, the prisoners and the wounded, as they are the heroes of freedom and deserve the highest priority by defending them and caring for them, as Fatah has done since the beginning of its activity.
We emphasize our people's right to resist the occupation (i.e., PA euphemism for terror), as guaranteed by international laws against the terror of the Israeli occupation...
Given the uprooting plans (i.e., PA term for Trump plan for Gaza), it is necessary to implement the right of return (i.e., into Israel), as explicitly stated in the UN General Assembly resolution 194 in 1949. Any return or population movement must be to the cities and villages from which our fathers and grandfathers were uprooted in 1948..."
[Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 23, 2025]
Younes is from Al-Azhar – a prominent Muslim academic institution in Cairo, Egypt.