Let us presume two players have one territory each and wish to swap. They both gift their spot to each other.

Does the player who's turn order places them first simply die instantly after gifting their only land away, or will the second players gift still count, swapping their places?

Players are checked for elimination after every order, so player A would die first, and then the gift card of player B would be skipped (because player A is dead and thus cannot be gifted to).