Trump made a direct position to end the war in Gaza. People who still live there listened.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump visits The Great Commoner Cafe with Hamtramck, Michigan Mayor Amer Ghalib standing to his right on November 1, 2024 in Dearborn, Michigan.
(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Now that Donald Trump has won the US presidential election, people in Gaza are wondering what lies ahead.
Citizens believe that genocide — and the Biden administration’s continued support for it — is the main reason for Trump’s victory. They are sure that Biden’s unlimited support for Israel has become a disaster for their lives. But what the future holds with Trump at the helm is unclear.
That’s why, when I interviewed a number of people after the election, I found a mixture of hope and fear: hope that Trump might take action to end the war in Gaza — as he says he wants— and fears that he may allow the genocide to continue unchallenged. They all agree on one thing: they feel that Trump has made real promises to end the genocide, and they want him to keep them. That’s part of what they told me.
Reem Al-Hour, 40, from Gaza City, now displaced
It is very sad that we are in the second year of the war, the American elections have come, and the war has not stopped yet. The US administration has still not recognized that the Israeli army has committed war crimes in the Gaza Strip, despite the killing of entire families who are no longer in the civil status records.
I supported Trump’s election victory because throughout the war he said that if he were president, he would end the war early. Now we expect him to be honest in his words and force Israel to stop the war. I hope that these speeches are not only for election propaganda. We want to stop the war as soon as possible. The days pass quickly and they are all very bad because of the continuous bombings, destruction and hunger that we are also experiencing.
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Trump will not be against Israel. We know the great support of Israel from America. He is definitely a friend of Netanyahu. During his previous term as president, he supported Netanyahu’s government, and from the speeches Netanyahu gave after Trump’s victory, it appears that he is (happy that Trump won). Trump has done things that have angered the Palestinian people, such as moving the US embassy to Jerusalem or his so-called “deal of the century.” But the only positive thing is that there was never a war in Gaza during his rule. And that’s what we want. We want to stop the war and rebuild Gaza so we can go back to normal life.
Salem Al-Masri, 35, from the city of Beit Hanoun, now moved
A Trump election win could be a good thing. He is a man who cares about the economy and about making deals with the countries of the Middle East, so he wants peace in the Middle East. And he said he would restore peace and stop the war. But I don’t believe him – he could support Netanyahu’s plans.
We just want them to stop the war. I want to return to my home with my three children and my wife. I want to meet my mom and dad up north. I haven’t seen them for a year and two months. Enough of what happened in a whole year of killings and destruction. We want a strong man who can force Netanyahu to stop the war. We do not want anyone to unite with Netanyahu against us, so that the war continues. The army on the ground in Gaza is carrying out dangerous plans, and Biden doesn’t care about them. We see that our territories are occupied by Israel, and Biden is just watching us. That’s why we want Trump to end the war quickly.
Rana Al-Raees, 22, a history student at Al-Aqsa University from Khan Younis
I have been following the news closely since the beginning of the war. I have never seen such a failure as from the Biden administration, which until now has encouraged Israel to continue the war. Biden had no way to impose his opinion on Netanyahu to end the war, so our suffering has continued for over a year. I was rooting for Harris a little bit, but she’s from the Biden administration. Even if she wanted to convince Biden of the need to end the war, she didn’t.
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Trump had experience in the Middle East when he was president – there were no wars during his presidency. He boasted about this during his election campaign and convinced many Muslims and supporters of the Palestinians that he would end the war.
There is no US president who does not have a strong friendship and absolute support for Israel. But Trump can be honest that wars are not part of his politics. The difficulty is whether it will happen, and if so, when. The people of Gaza are very tired and cannot wait any longer. Gaza has never had a more difficult war than this, unfortunately it was the worst, so we do not want to lose hope and hope that Trump will be honest in his promise that the war will stop soon.
I miss my life, my university and normal days. We hope Trump doesn’t let us down like Biden did. We’ve had some dying moments because of Biden’s insane support for Netanyahu.
Raed Baraka, 50, from the town of Khuzaa, east of Khan Younis
Unfortunately, there is no honest American president. My house was destroyed by American missiles. Biden participated with Netanyahu in the war in Gaza and did not spare our children and women. Biden agreed to our displacement and expulsion from our homes and their destruction in such a horrible way. We want a just and strong president who can stop the war in Gaza. We want Trump to stop this war. We want him to be honest.
Trump is a controversial president. Sometimes he seems like a crazy person with strange ideas about the Middle East, but now it is important for us to stop the war in Gaza and give us a state so that we can live in safety. We don’t want wars. Since I was born, I have lived through many wars in a row. In every war in Gaza, my house has been destroyed and my farmland bulldozed. If Trump supports Netanyahu or Israel, let him do what he wants, but not deprive us of living in peace and security. Stop the war for us. This is what we want from you. It is not difficult for you to stop the killing of children and women and the continuous bombing of our land. Trump says he is a man of peace. We are a peaceful people. We want him to stop the war.
We cannot retreat
We now face a second Trump presidency.
There is nothing to lose. We must use our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger to oppose the dangerous policies that Donald Trump is unleashing on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as principled and honest journalists and authors.
Today we are also preparing for the future struggle. It will require a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis and humane resistance. We are faced with the adoption of Project 2025, a far-right Supreme Court, political authoritarianism, rising inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis and conflicts abroad. Nation will expose and propose, develop investigative reporting and act together as a community to preserve hope and opportunity. NationThe work will continue — as it has in good times and bad — to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and in-depth reporting, and to expand solidarity in a divided nation.
Armed with 160 years of courageous independent journalism, our mandate remains the same today as it was when the Abolitionists were founded Nation— to defend the principles of democracy and freedom, to serve as a beacon in the darkest days of resistance, and to see and fight for a bright future.
The day is dark, the forces are building tenaciously, but it’s too late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is just the time when artists go to work. No time for despair, no room for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we make language. This is how civilizations heal.”
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Katrina Vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, Nation
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