Palestinians and Arab states reject Trump’s Gaza takeover plan


The Palestinian president has stated he strongly rejects President Donald Trump’s proposal for the US to take over Gaza and completely resettle the two.1 million Palestinians residing there.

“We will not allow the rights of our people… to be infringed on,” Mahmoud Abbas pressured, warning that Gaza was “an integral part of the State of Palestine” and compelled displacement can be a severe violation of worldwide regulation.

Hamas, whose 15-month battle with Israel has induced widespread devastation, stated Trump’s plan would “put oil on the fire” within the area.

Arab states additionally rejected the concept, with Saudi Arabia reiterating it will not normalise ties with Israel with out the institution of a Palestinian state.

Neighbouring Egypt, who had rejected Trump’s suggestion final month that it and Jordan absorb residents of Gaza, pressured the necessity for reconstruction “without moving the Palestinians”.

It comes two weeks after the beginning of a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, throughout which Hamas has launched some Israeli hostages it’s holding in trade for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

The Israeli army launched a marketing campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border assault on 7 October 2023, by which about 1,200 folks had been killed and 251 had been taken hostage.

More than 47,540 folks have been killed and 111,600 injured in Gaza since then, in keeping with the territory’s Hamas-run well being ministry.

Most of Gaza’s inhabitants has additionally been displaced a number of instances, nearly 70% of buildings are estimated to be broken or destroyed, the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene techniques have collapsed, and there are shortages of meals, gasoline, medication and shelter.

President Trump’s first main remarks on Middle East coverage shattered a long time of US considering on the Israeli-Palestinian battle.

He introduced them on the White House on Tuesday night time alongside visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” he stated. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings.”

Trump estimated that about 1.8 million Palestinians residing in Gaza must be relocated to realize his imaginative and prescient of making “the Riviera of the Middle East”, and stated they might be housed in Jordan, Egypt and different nations.

When requested whether or not the refugees would ultimately be allowed to return, he stated that “the world’s people” would reside in Gaza, earlier than including “also Palestinians”.

Trump additionally brushed apart earlier objections from Jordan and Egypt’s leaders to taking in refugees, insisting that they might ultimately “open their hearts and will give us the kind of land that we need to get this done”.

Netanyahu stated Trump’s proposal may “change history” and was “worth paying attention to”, including: “This is the kind of thinking that will reshape the Middle East and bring peace.”

A unnamed senior Israeli official was additionally quoted as saying that Trump’s concepts surpassed all his “expectations and dreams”.

However, the Palestinian management condemned the plan in an announcement issued on Wednesday.

“These calls represent a serious violation of international law,” President Abbas stated, including that “peace and stability will not be achieved in the region without the establishment of a Palestinian state”.

Abbas leads Hamas rivals Fatah and governs components of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

He declared that Palestinians wouldn’t “give up their land, rights, and sacred sites” and that “the Gaza Strip is an integral part of the land of the State of Palestine, along with the West Bank and East Jerusalem”.

Hamas – which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US, the UK and different nations – stated in an announcement that Trump was “aiming for the United States to occupy the Gaza Strip”.

It warned that his proposal was “aggressive to our people and cause, won’t serve stability in the region and will only put oil on the fire”.

Palestinians in Gaza additionally stated the plan was fully out of the query.

“We have endured nearly a year and a half of bombings and destruction, yet we remain in Gaza,” one man informed BBC Arabic.

“We would rather die in Gaza than leave it. We will stay here until we rebuild it. Trump can do as he pleases, but we firmly reject his decisions.”

Under worldwide regulation, makes an attempt to forcibly switch populations are strictly prohibited.

Palestinians additionally worry a repeat of the “Nakba”, or “catastrophe”, when tons of of hundreds fled or had been pushed from their houses throughout the battle that adopted the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.

Many of these refugees ended up in Gaza, the place they and their descendants make up three quarters of the inhabitants. Another 900,000 registered refugees reside within the West Bank, which Israel occupied within the 1967 Middle East battle together with Gaza, whereas 3.4 million others reside in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, in keeping with the UN.

Israel unilaterally withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005, although it retained management of its shared border, airspace and shoreline, giving it efficient management of the motion of individuals and items. The UN nonetheless regards Gaza as Israeli-occupied territory due to the extent of management Israel has.

Saudi Arabia’s international ministry stated the dominion “unequivocally rejected” Trump’s proposal for post-war Gaza and reiterated that it will proceed its efforts to determine an unbiased Palestinian state and “not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that”.

“Achieving lasting and just peace is impossible without the Palestinian people obtaining their legitimate rights,” it added.

Following talks in Cairo, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty stated he had agreed with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa on “the importance of moving forward with early recovery projects… without the Palestinians leaving the Gaza Strip, especially with their commitment to their land and refusal to leave it”.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stated the relocation of Palestinians from Gaza in any kind was “unacceptable”, including: “It is absurd to even consider it.”

Western governments additionally expressed alarm about any compelled displacement.

France’s international ministry stated it will “constitute a serious violation of international law, an attack on the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians, but also a major obstacle to the two-state solution and a major destabilising factor for our close partners Egypt and Jordan, as well as for the entire region”.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy stated: “We’ve always been clear in our belief that we must seek two states. We must see Palestinians able to live and prosper in their homelands, in Gaza, in the West Bank.”



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