How Gaza’s Displacement Plan Could Shake China’s BRI and Suez via Israel’s Ben Gurion Port

As the war between Hamas and Israel entered its second year, about 85% of Gaza’s population was forced to leave their homes.

As the war between Hamas and Israel entered its second year, about 85% of Gaza’s population was forced to leave their homes. The Hebrew state ordered Palestinian civilians to leave for the far south of the Strip, leading to a large number of people being overcrowded in the border city of Rafah with Egypt. Egypt, Jordan and Palestinian Authority President “Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen” had previously warned against attempts to displace Gazans, while Israel and the United States had ruled out the idea at the time. But after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect on January 19, 2025, Trump spoke of a plan to cleanse the Gaza Strip, and reiterated the idea several times, calling on Palestinians to move to safer places such as Egypt or Jordan. For her part, Israeli Intelligence Minister “Gila Gamliel” called for “encouraging the voluntary resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza outside the Gaza Strip, for humanitarian reasons.” Former Israeli officials suggested in television interviews that Egypt could set up large tent cities in the Sinai Desert, with international funding. Historically, most of Gaza’s population are Palestinian refugees or descendants of refugees. In the eyes of the Palestinians, any attempt to move them out of Gaza would be similar to the Palestinian Nakba that they experienced in 1948 when the Hebrew state was founded.

  While the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva “Filippo Grandi”, rejected Trump’s proposal on Wednesday, January 26, 2025, stressing that: “It has become very important to emphasize that this process of evacuating the population should not be promoted, encouraged or imposed”. The expulsion of civilians is considered an act prohibited under the Geneva Conventions, which form the core of international humanitarian law. Taking into consideration that the real goal behind Trump’s latest proposal is to cleanse Gaza and displace its population to Jordan and Egypt, it actually hides an attempt to please and serve the extreme right in Israel on the one hand, and to plunder the wealth of the Palestinian sector, especially the northern region, on the other hand, in preparation for the establishment of the “Israeli Ben Gurion Port” by annexing the Gaza port to it after emptying its population, and linking it to India and Europe, to thwart the Chinese Belt and Road project and to create another branch parallel to the Egyptian Suez Canal, and to make Israel control all global shipping lines and maritime transport, through the Israeli Ben Gurion port. Perhaps this is the main and real reason that China realized, and by virtue of my closeness to Chinese circles, this alternative Israeli project with generous support from the United States of America during the “G7 summit”, and with the participation and blessing of India and the major European countries, was one of the most prominent tensions in relations between Beijing and Tel Aviv. This is what I have previously noted in my international analyses.         

  Thus, China is fiercely fighting the plan to displace the Palestinians, to nullify the (Israeli Ben Gurion Project), as it is the most dangerous secret plan that China is trying to expose its disguised methods under the pretext of war or creating a safe place for civilians to live, according to the claim of US President “Trump”, while the only intelligence truth in this dangerous strategic and international game, according to the awareness of Chinese intelligence institutions through the Chinese State Council, which is responsible for the work of the Chinese intelligence agency, is this dangerous plan, under American supervision, to seize the entire Gaza port and link it to the Israeli Ben Gurion port, as an alternative to the Belt and Road project in international trade, as an American and Israeli intelligence project in the Middle East region to confront the Chinese Silk Road project and to limit the influence of the Egyptian Suez Canal, as it connects India and Europe through railways and maritime transport across the Middle East.

  Perhaps this is the main and real reason for my writing a serious and important analytical article published on the website of the “Modern Diplomacy” website for global political analysis on December 18, 2023, entitled: “How China and Russia cancel IMEC and Ben Gurion Port Project”?, by discussing: “How did China and Russia nullify the Israeli Ben Gurion Port Project?”. It was the important analytical article, because of which the American diplomat “Michael Manzo”, in his official capacity as Deputy Consul General at the US Embassy in the “Guangdong” province in southern China, sent me an official email, dated December 28, 2023, addressed to me by the official email of the US Consulate General in the Guangdong province of China, under the supervision of the US State Department. It is the email that I published publicly and translated, given my awareness of its importance and seriousness at the time.  The American diplomat, Michael Manzo, tried to introduce himself to me, with his previous service at the American embassy in Cairo several years ago, and with the presence of terrorist operations targeting the Egyptian Suez Canal, and with the presence of terrorist elements in the Egyptian Sinai, all of which are factors that affect the movement of the Egyptian Suez Canal, and require the need to think of alternative navigation routes, for fear of those terrorist movements that affect the work of the Egyptian Suez Canal.

 Realizing the seriousness of the email of the American diplomat “Michael Manzo”, which came immediately after he read my aforementioned analysis, that the only real reason for the outbreak of the Gaza war is a purely intelligence and economic reason, and the only real reason as well, is for China and its close ally Russia not to condemn the Hamas movement internationally and internationally, and to nullify all American, Israeli and Western attempts supporting the designation of the Hamas movement as an international terrorist organization. Given China and Russia’s full awareness that the Hamas movement will be the pressure card and the important game with them to obstruct the Israeli and American project as an alternative to the Chinese Belt and Road and the Egyptian Suez Canal. This is the dangerous back door behind the outbreak of the Gaza war on October 6, 2023.

 So, the official response to me came through the US State Department, and through the US Consulate General in Guangdong Province in southern China, through its diplomat “Michael Manzo” in an official email addressed to me, to discuss with me in America my important international analysis published in this regard. Which I was hosted internationally to discuss with me through one of the international talk shows.

    On the other hand, I tried to draw the attention of the Chinese and internationally to the seriousness of these Israeli military moves to claim the lives of hundreds of thousands of residents of the Gaza Strip, to push them to complete despair and then help them escape from the hell of war in the Gaza Strip to neighboring countries in Egypt and Jordan, in preparation for fully merging the Gaza port with the Israeli Ben Gurion port, an alternative to the Chinese Belt and Road and the Egyptian Suez Canal.  Accordingly, and China is aware of the danger of the forced displacement of the people of Gaza, and Israel’s seizure of the Gaza Strip, especially the Gaza port, in preparation for its annexation to the Israeli Ben Gurion port, to create a parallel road to the Chinese Belt and Road, and to strike the Egyptian Suez Canal project and all Chinese projects in the region.

 Therefore, China’s complete rejection of all attempts to displace Palestinians from the Gaza Strip came to prevent Israel from completely seizing the Gaza port in particular. Perhaps this is the most dangerous and hidden part of the issue. Which I have dealt with analytically and politically before, to draw the attention of the region’s leaders and its political, diplomatic and military institutions to the other hidden face of the Gaza war and its causes, and this clear Chinese and Russian determination not to condemn the Hamas movement in the United Nations and international forums, with China hosting all Palestinian resistance factions several times in the Chinese capital “Beijing”, including the leaders of the Islamic Jihad movement, which the United States of America classifies to date as an international terrorist group.

 China is aware of the danger of emptying the Gaza Strip of its population, especially the danger of the “Gaza Port”  falling entirely into the hands of the Israeli army. Therefore, all Chinese state institutions, intellectual and media centers have confronted US President Trump’s plan to displace Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. In this regard, Chinese think tanks concerned with Middle Eastern affairs considered the displacement plan a crime against humanity and a war crime. Chinese media and press competed to invalidate the Zionist dream of seizing the Gaza Port by displacing and emptying its population, to facilitate the Israeli project as an alternative to the Chinese Belt and Road and the Egyptian Suez Canal, with the placement of Chinese headlines and titles, through all its officials, academics and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that: “if the population of the Gaza Strip is forcibly displaced, in the context of an armed conflict, it is a war crime”. With this Chinese determination to condemn Israel in all international and legal forums, based on the statute of the International Criminal Court, which considers that “deportation or forcible transfer of population” is included as a crime against humanity.  Since leaders do not need to make an explicit declaration that people must leave in order for this to be considered forced displacement, especially if living conditions make it impossible for people to live, they will have no other choice. China has also sought to obtain multiple successful convictions regarding the forced displacement of Palestinian civilians, citing previous international condemnation rulings in this regard, including in the International Criminal Court for the former Yugoslavia, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and the International Criminal Court.

  The danger lies in Israel and the far-right government in Israel seizing the Palestinian port of Gaza to facilitate its plan to annex it to the Israeli port of Ben Gurion, and the danger of this to China’s national security in particular, as it has analyzed it internationally and politically, so the Chinese side has put in place several alternative and long-term plans under its care and supervision to prevent and ensure that Israel does not seize the entire port of Gaza after expelling its residents. For this reason, the Chinese side sees the importance of unifying the West Bank and the Gaza Strip under one government, as a step towards establishing an independent Palestinian state, while achieving a delicate balance between diplomacy, regional cooperation and taking concrete measures by all concerned parties. With the Chinese warning of the danger of the expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, and the Chinese full emphasis, that these Israeli settlements should not benefit from any of the European Union and international cooperation programs in all fields, which is, by the way, an important matter for the Israelis, with the Israelis being keen, as we all know, for Europe to be a supporter of them in the first place more than supporting the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.   

  All Chinese state departments, institutions, and think tanks have strongly opposed all similar Tel Aviv projects to expel Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, as the Chinese are aware of the danger this poses to their national security, as I have explained in detail. The latest of these was China’s complete rejection of the Israeli proposal to displace the residents of the Gaza Strip to “humanitarian islands”  or to the Egyptian Sinai. In late 2023, the third month of the war, Chinese officials warned of the possibility of displacing the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip to Egypt, in light of the displacement of the majority of them and the penetration of Israeli forces into the besieged Strip. At the time, China strongly supported the position of “Philippe Lazzarini”, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and their warning to Israel to pave the way for the mass expulsion of the residents of the Strip to Egypt.  It is necessary to point out and mention that the Chinese relied on the article by “Philippe Lazzarini” published in the Los Angeles Times, regarding the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the crowding of Palestinian civilians displaced from the Gaza Strip, who fled the fighting increasingly near the borders in the north and then the south. Lazzarini confirmed in his article that: “The developments we are witnessing indicate attempts to transfer the Palestinians to Egypt”.

 In order to refute the Israeli dream of creating an alternative route to the Chinese Belt and Road, China has strongly opposed projects to displace Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Egypt and Jordan. China considered that Trump’s proposal to displace Palestinians encourages the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity by forcing the Palestinian people to leave their land, thus paving the way for Israel to completely seize the Gaza port and include it in the alternative Israeli and American project to establish the Israeli Ben Gurion port, and make Israel the primary controller of global maritime navigation routes and maritime transport around the world, by making the Israeli Ben Gurion port the main logistics center for global navigation and shipping. This is the hidden and real door, which all Chinese intelligence circles have realized and are aware of through the “Chinese State Council” apparatus, which is acting as the Chinese intelligence apparatus, behind this full American and Western support for the plan to displace Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

Dr.Nadia Helmy
Dr.Nadia Helmy
Associate Professor of Political Science, Faculty of Politics and Economics / Beni Suef University- Egypt. An Expert in Chinese Politics, Sino-Israeli relationships, and Asian affairs- Visiting Senior Researcher at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES)/ Lund University, Sweden- Director of the South and East Asia Studies Unit