US's Bernie Sanders lone senator to oppose Trump's call to 'clean out' Gaza

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders has condemned President Donald Trump's remarks about moving millions of Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip, calling them "ethnic cleansing" and a "war crime." Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont and a leading progressive voice in American politics, is the only senator to denounce these comments, urging other senators to condemn Trump's proposal.

“Trump said he wants to ‘clean up’ Gaza and push the millions of Palestinians living there into neighboring countries,” Sanders stated on X. He added, "There is a name for that — ethnic cleansing — and it is a war crime." Trump said on Sunday that he wants Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians from the area, referring to Gaza as a “demolition site.”

“I want Egypt to take people. I want Jordan to take people,” Trump told reporters. Speaking about Gaza, he said, “You’re talking about maybe 1.5 million people, and we’re just going to clean the whole place up.” The population of Gaza is approximately 2.4 million, and he added that “something has to be done.” Earlier in Israel's war on Gaza, Sanders faced criticism from progressive activists for refusing to support calls for a ceasefire in Gaza. In October 2023, 300 of his former staffers demanded a ceasefire in the conflict, but Sanders at the time only called for a "humanitarian pause" without mentioning a ceasefire.

Meanwhile, the senator has been a leading voice in the Senate calling for the US to restrict arms shipments to Israel due to its human rights abuses in the Palestinian enclave. Human rights experts swiftly and widely condemned Trump's remarks, deeming his proposal "ethnic cleansing." Inside Washington, little outrage has been expressed by progressive lawmakers besides Sanders. Many far-right political figures have called for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank. However, Trump's comments on Gaza have even unsettled some Republican allies.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who often defends Trump, said in an interview with CNN that he doesn't “know what he’s talking about,” referring to Trump’s call to move millions of Palestinians out of Gaza. “The idea that all Palestinians are going to leave and go somewhere else, I don’t think is very realistic,” Graham said. He had called for Israel to “level the place” when speaking about Gaza in October 2023. Despite Trump’s call to “clean up” Gaza, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians returned to northern Gaza this week after being displaced by Israeli forces in Israel's war on the enclave.

Approximately 80% of Gaza’s population are refugees or descendants of refugees displaced during the 1948 Israeli occupation of 78% of historical Palestine, an event Palestinians refer to as the Nakba, or catastrophe. Sami Salih, a Palestinian who has been displaced multiple times during Israel’s war on Gaza, previously told MEE that he was happy to return to his home in the north. “I won’t hide these feelings, and I’m not exaggerating when I say this: I wanted to fly to the north… these feelings were there from the start. Despite all the pain and hardship, I had to return to the north no matter what, even if I had to walk there barefoot,” he said.

Israel and Hamas agreed to a phased ceasefire agreement earlier this month. The fragile agreement has been in effect since January 19, and aid has begun to trickle into Gaza. However, Trump has expressed skepticism about whether the ceasefire will proceed to its second phase, which is set to begin in March.