A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
President Trump surprised allies and enemies alike this week when he called for the United States to take over Gaza. He said he wanted to relocate the nearly 2 million people there. Trump also promised some kind of announcement about another big Palestinian zone, the West Bank.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Which is where we found NPR's Kat Lonsdorf, in the city of Ramallah. Welcome back.
KAT LONSDORF, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning.
INSKEEP: What are you hearing on the West Bank?
LONSDORF: Yeah, so a lot of people, when I asked them about Trump's comments, started kind of smirking and basically saying, you know, I'll believe it when I see it. But a few people I talked to did admit that Gaza is in ruins, people there don't have proper living conditions and that something needs to be done. Here's Ahmed Habib (ph). He's a pharmacist in Ramallah, but he's originally from Gaza. He still has a lot of family there.
AHMED HABIB: (Speaking Arabic).
LONSDORF: He told me, "all I care about is if people there have food, have milk," he says. "People in Gaza deserve to live. I don't care where Trump wants to put us if they can just have a good life." But other Palestinians out here I talked to point out that Gaza is Palestinian land and that even if they think Trump's plan is not realistic, talk of moving people from that land is very emotional and unsettling.
INSKEEP: And, of course, the conflict over the land is central to the area where you are. You're outside of Gaza. You're in a much larger land area, the West Bank. You have millions of Palestinians there.
LONSDORF: Yeah.
INSKEEP: You have Israelis who have founded settlements there and taken control of large parts of the West Bank. So what are people thinking, and what is actually going on on the ground in the West Bank?
LONSDORF: Yeah, I mean, you have to remember that the backdrop to all of this right now is that the Israeli military is still conducting a very big operation through many of the cities in the northern part of the West Bank. Israel launched this operation just two days after the ceasefire in Gaza went into effect. And they've said that this one is different from past operations. For example, Defense Minister Israel Katz announced that Israeli troops are going to remain in the Jenin refugee camp. That's the epicenter of the fighting. This hasn't happened before. It'd be a big shift in Israeli policy. For months, Palestinians in the West Bank that I've been talking to here have told me that they've been worried that Israel's military focus might soon be moving from Gaza to them and ultimately that Israel might try to take more land here.
INSKEEP: Well, let's talk about that because Trump mentioned the West Bank as well.
LONSDORF: Yeah.
INSKEEP: When he dropped this surprise proposal for the United States to own Gaza, which the administration has walked back to some extent since, he also said that in the next few weeks, he'd be saying something about the West Bank. People must be wondering what that something is going to be.
LONSDORF: Yeah. Last night, I met Adel Abumaj (ph). He's a chef in Ramallah. He's originally from Jenin, where the Israeli military is focused right now. He left a couple months ago. And he told me he's playing close attention to what Trump is saying.
ADEL ABUMAJ: (Speaking Arabic).
LONSDORF: He said what Trump said about Gaza empowers Israel to do whatever they want, to take the land that they want. And he thinks annexation could be a real possibility here in the West Bank. You know, after Trump was elected last November, several far-right Israeli ministers commented that this might now be the time for Israel to move on West Bank annexation. You know, I should point out that all of this would be illegal under international law. But Trump also appointed key people in his administration who have said that they would support Israeli annexation. So given Trump's Gaza statements and his planned announcement about the West Bank in the future, all of this has people here pretty nervous.
INSKEEP: NPR's Kat Lonsdorf in the occupied West Bank. Thanks so much.
LONSDORF: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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