Hamas demands end to occupation not expulsion, condemns proposal
United States President Donald Trump has said the US will “take over” and “own” Gaza after resettling Palestinians elsewhere under an extraordinary redevelopment plan that he claimed could turn the enclave into “the Riviera of the Middle East”.
In a shock announcement upending decades of US policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Trump said on Tuesday that his administration would spearhead economic development in the enclave to “supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area”.
“The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it,” Trump said at the White House after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, adding that his administration would be responsible for clearing destroyed buildings and dismantling “dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons”.
Hamas demands end to occupation not expulsion, condemns proposal
Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs Gaza, swiftly condemned the proposal as a “recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region”.
“Our people in the Gaza Strip will not allow these plans to pass,” the group said in a statement.
“What is required is an end to the occupation and aggression against our people, not their expulsion from their land. Our people in Gaza have thwarted displacement and deportation plans under bombardment for more than 15 months.”
In his remarks, Trump suggested the US would take a “long-term ownership position” over the enclave.
“This was not a decision made lightly. Everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent,” he said.
Offering few specifics about how his plan would be implemented, Trump expressed hope that displaced Palestinians in Gaza would “go to other countries of interest with humanitarian hearts”, though he suggested Palestinians would also continue living there.
The US president said Gaza could become home to the “world’s people”.
“I think you will make that into an international, unbelievable place. I think the potential in the Gaza Strip is unbelievable. And I think the entire world – representatives from all over the world will be there and they’ll live there. Palestinians also, Palestinians will live there,” he said.
Netanyahu, who praised Trump as the “greatest friend” Israel has ever had, said the US president’s plan was worth “paying attention to” and could “change history”.
“He sees a different future for that piece of land that has been the focus of so much terrorism, so many attacks against us, so many trials and so many tribulations,” Netanyahu said.
Trump’s announcement was broadly condemned by Palestinian advocates.
“He’s essentially saying that, officially, US policy now is the destruction of Palestinian society, the scattering of Palestinians to neighbouring countries, and on top of that, for the US to come and own Palestinian territory indefinitely,” political analyst and human rights advocate Omar Baddar told Al Jazeera.
“I don’t know what planet we are living on where these statements are coming out of the president of the United States.”
Abed Ayoub, executive director at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), described Trump’s proposal as “terrifying” and “insane”.
“It would go against all norms and international law. This isn’t something that would be permitted to happen,” Ayoub told Al Jazeera.
“But at this point, you’ve got to ask yourself if you look at the past year and a half: How much does the international community, including Israel, really care about international law and norms?”
Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Palestinian-American who is a resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said that Gaza was not a “real estate development project for the United States government to own or take over”.
“Gaza belongs to the Palestinian people. Distracting from the need to initiate political transformation to ensure that Hamas doesn’t remain in control is unnecessary and harmful,” Alkhatib said on X.
Democratic lawmakers also cast doubt on Trump’s proposal.
Rashida Tlaib, the sole Palestinian member of the US Congress, accused Trump of “openly calling for ethnic cleansing while sitting next to a genocidal war criminal.”
“He’s perfectly fine cutting off working Americans from federal funds while the funding to the Israeli government continues flowing,” Tlaib, who represents a district in Michigan in the House of Representatives, said on X.
Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator for Connecticut, said Trump’s proposal was an attempt to distract from controversies at home.
“I have news for you – we aren’t taking over Gaza,” Murphy said on X. “But the media and the chattering class will focus on it for a few days and Trump will have succeeded in distracting everyone from the real story – the billionaires seizing government to steal from regular people.”
Trump has repeatedly called on Egypt and Jordan to accept displaced Palestinians, but the Arab states have rejected his appeals, warning that resettling residents of the enclave would risk exacerbating conflict in the region and subvert efforts to reach a two-state solution.
Responding to Trump’s proposals, Saudi Arabia said it would oppose any attempt to displace Palestinians and would not establish relations with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state.
“The proposal for Gazans to leave Gaza would face significant legal, political, and practical challenges, and would likely be met with strong opposition from the international community and regional actors,” Alam Saleh, a Middle East expert at the Australian National University, told Al Jazeera.
Trump’s extraordinary proposal casts a pall of uncertainty over the next round of negotiations to extend the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
The initial 42-day truce, which will see the release of 33 Israeli captives and nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, expires on March 1.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Palestinian group Hamas said that negotiations for a second phase of the ceasefire had begun. If agreed to, that phase would see the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and the freeing of all captives.
Trump on Tuesday cast doubt on the strength of the agreement and the likelihood it would last.
“The strikes could start tomorrow,” Trump said. “There’s not a lot left to strike.”
Source: Al Jazeera
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