But beneath his astonishing plan were echoes of forced displacement that have shaped Palestinian society since 1948. The establishment of Israel that year in the Arab-Israeli war is known to Palestinians as the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” because of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes.

In interviews, some Palestinians said they would rather leave Gaza, given the inescapable devastation — but the decision was theirs, not Trump’s, to make.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday there was nothing wrong in Donald Trump's idea of displacing Palestinians from Gaza after the U.S. president's proposal drew international criticism.