Deir el-Balah, Gaza, Palestine and Beirut, Lebanon – Palestinian and Lebanese civilians are preparing for more devastation once Donald Trump begins his second term as president of the United States in January.

As millions of Trump supporters celebrate his victory, many in the Middle East watch in fear.

In the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon, there are fears that Israel's staunch ally will encourage its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the far-right coalition government to escalate regional conflicts and destroy any possibility of Palestinian self-determination.

“I have no trust in America,” said Abu Ali, an 87-year-old in Gaza who, like most people there, was driven from his home. “I expect the war in Gaza to get worse (under Trump).”

The outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden has supported Israel in its campaign in Gaza.

Since the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which 1,139 people were killed and 250 captured, Israel's genocide against Palestinians in Gaza – with US weapons – has killed more than 43,000 Palestinians and uprooted almost the entire population 2.3 million people.

Palestinians there fear that Trump will now give the green light to plans to drive them out of the strip.

The Republican president-elect accused Democrat Biden of holding back Israel in Gaza and made a vague promise to help Israel “finish the job” if re-elected.

“I don’t know if the situation will improve under Trump. He could simply allow Israel to deport us all (from Gaza) instead of killing us,” Abu Mohamad said with a hint of sarcasm from a displaced persons camp in Gaza.

Abu Ali believes that the Palestinians are at the mercy of whoever holds power in the United States.

A survivor of the Nakba (“catastrophe”), the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians by Zionist militias during the founding of Israel in 1948, he said he witnessed several U.S. presidents supporting Israeli atrocities against his people.

He expects this trend to continue under Trump and stressed that neither the Nakba nor Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza should be called a “war.”

“There are no wars (between Israel and Palestine),” he told Al Jazeera. “It wasn’t a war back then. And this is not a war (in Gaza). It’s a genocide.”

The view from Lebanon

Many people in Lebanon expect Trump to maintain or increase support for Israel's war effort.

Israel claims to be fighting the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, but observers accuse Israel of waging a war against the country's Shiite community.

In Lebanon, political offices are awarded proportionally according to the country's religious composition. The president is always a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim and the speaker of parliament a Shia Muslim.

Since the Lebanese civil war that lasted from 1975 to 1990, Hezbollah has consolidated its control over the Shiite community by mixing religion, identity and resistance into a political movement that resonated with many people. Hezbollah has also suppressed its opponents.

Over the past month, Israel has intensified its war against Hezbollah by bombing towns and cities in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. Residents of entire villages and districts were uprooted by Israeli fire, which leveled their homes and raised fears of permanent displacement.

Ali Saleem, who was forced out of the southern town of Sour, said the war would continue under Trump. He said the president-elect could present a ceasefire proposal that would be favorable to Israel but not to Hezbollah or Lebanon.

“Trump will put an offer on the table and say, 'Do you want to end the war or not?'” Selim, 30, told Al Jazeera. “If we say no, the war will continue.”

Ali Aloweeya, 44, added that Trump would likely defend “Zionist interests” in the region.

He fears that Trump might even allow Israel to try to establish illegal settlements in southern Lebanon, as some far-right Israeli activists and political officials have urged.

“If Trump returns and once again advocates for the interests of the Israelis, we will resist. We are a people of resistance.”

Fear of annexation

During Trump's first term as president from 2017 to 2021, he took actions that harmed Palestinians in the occupied territories and the surrounding region.

He stopped US funding for the United Nations Palestinian Relief Agency (UNRWA) and broke with decades of policy by moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Palestinians viewed the moves as an attempt to upend their right to return to their homeland – as enshrined in UN Resolution 194 – and force them to give up occupied East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem and occupied Arab territories after defeating Arab armies in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Tasame Ramadan, a Palestinian human rights activist, now fears that Trump could allow Israel to annex large parts of the West Bank. Activists, analysts and human rights groups said Israel had de facto already done this.

“As Palestinians, we don’t expect anything positive from Trump. His decisions are unpredictable, but he often ignores Palestinian voices and his decisions have lasting impacts on Palestinians,” said Ramadan, who lives in Nablus, a West Bank city.

She pointed out that Trump recognized Israel's sovereignty over the Syrian-occupied Golan Heights in 2019, which violated international law.

It is preparing for similar policies that could harm or even destroy Palestinian aspirations for self-determination.

“Trump’s actions ignore our rights and our hopes for freedom and for a sovereign Palestinian state,” she told Al Jazeera.

“But I also don’t think the Palestinians would be happy if (US Vice President Kamala) Harris had won the election. She deserved defeat because of her stance on the situation in Palestine and the fact that she did not stop the genocide.

“In both cases, neither of these two (candidates) were our best option.”