President Donald Trump's shock proposal for the U.S. to "take over" Gaza and permanently displace its Palestinian population drew swift condemnation from both American allies and adversaries on Wednesday.
Trump's suggestion came at a White House news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who smiled several times as the president detailed a plan to build new settlements for Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip, and for the U.S. to take "ownership" in redeveloping the war-torn territory into "the Riviera of the Middle East."
"The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too," Trump said. "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, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs."
The comments came amid a fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, during which the Palestinian resistance group has been turning over hostages in exchange for the release of prisoners held by Israel.
Hamas on Wednesday rejected the plan, calling it "racist" and aimed at eliminating the Palestinian cause.
"The American racist stance aligns with the Israeli extreme right's position in displacing our people and eliminating our cause," Hamas spokesman Abdel Latif al-Qanou said in a statement.
Egypt, Jordan and other American allies in the Middle East have already rejected the idea of relocating more than 2 million Palestinians from Gaza elsewhere in the region.
Saudi Arabia, an important American ally, weighed in quickly on Trump's expanded idea to take over the Gaza Strip in a sharply worded statement, noting that its long call for an independent Palestinian state was a "firm, steadfast and unwavering position."
"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also stresses what it had previously announced regarding its absolute rejection of infringement on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, whether through Israeli settlement policies, annexation of Palestinian lands or efforts to displace the Palestinian people from their land," the statement said.
Türkiye called the proposal "unacceptable" and France said it risked destabilizing the Middle East.
Countries from Russia, China, Germany, Spain, Ireland and the U.K. said they continued to support the two-state solution that has formed the basis of Washington's policy in the region for decades, which has held that Gaza would be part of a future Palestinian state that includes the occupied West Bank.
Russia believes a settlement in the Middle East is only possible on the basis of a two-state solution, the Kremlin said on Wednesday, while Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said "Gaza is the land of Gazan Palestinians and they must stay in Gaza".
Similarly, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters in Canberra, Australia, that his country has long supported a two-state solution in the Middle East and that nothing had changed.
"Australia's position is the same as it was this morning, as it was last year, as it was 10 years ago," he said.
Trump has already made waves – and upset longtime allies – suggesting the purchase of Greenland, the annexation of Canada and the possible takeover of the Panama Canal.
It was not immediately clear whether the idea of taking over the Gaza Strip was a well-thought-out plan or an opening gambit in negotiations.
China, meanwhile, said it was also opposed to the "forced transfer" of Palestinians from Gaza.
"China has always maintained that Palestinian rule over Palestinians is the basic principle of the post-war governance of Gaza, and we are opposed to the forced transfer of the residents of Gaza," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a regular press conference.
New Zealand's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that its "long-standing support for a two-state solution is on the record" and added that it, too, "won't be commenting on every proposal that is put forward."
In the U.S., opposition politicians quickly rejected Trump's idea, with Democratic Sen. Chris Coons calling his comments "offensive and insane and dangerous and foolish."
The idea "risks the rest of the world thinking that we are an unbalanced and unreliable partner because our president makes insane proposals," Coons said.
Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian American member of Congress from Michigan, accused Trump in a social media post of "openly calling for ethnic cleansing" with the idea of resettling Gaza's entire population.
Displacement is a highly sensitive issue among both Palestinians and Arab countries.
As fighting raged in the Gaza war, Palestinians feared they would suffer from another "Nakba," or catastrophe, referring to the time when hundreds of thousands were dispossessed of their homes in the 1948 war at the birth of the state of Israel.
"Trump can go to hell, with his ideas, with his money, and with his beliefs. We are going nowhere. We are not some of his assets," Samir Abu Basil, 40, a father of five from Gaza City, told Reuters via a chat app.
"The easier for him if he wants to resolve this conflict is to take the Israelis and put them in one of the states there. They are the strangers and not the Palestinians. We are the owner of the land."
