Trump's Gaza plan for 'Riviera of the Middle East' triggers international condemnation
- Trump's plan draws international condemnationÂ
- Saudi Arabia rejects displacement of Palestinians, demands Palestinian stateÂ
- Russia backs Palestinian stateÂ
- Palestinians fear another 'Nakba' amid Trump's controversial proposalÂ
- Netanyahu says Trump is thinking with fresh ideas
President Donald Trump's plan for the US to take over war-torn Gaza and create a "Riviera of the Middle East" after resettling Palestinians elsewhere has shattered US policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and sparked widespread criticism.
The shock move from Trump, a former New York property developer, was swiftly condemned by international powers, with regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia, which Trump hopes will establish ties with Israel, rejecting the plan outright.
Turkey called the proposal "unacceptable" and France said it risked destabilising the Middle East.
Countries from Russia, China, Spain, Ireland and the UK said they continued to support the two-state solution that has formed the basis of Washington's policy in the region for decades.
The Tánaiste has described Donald Trump’s comments about taking over Gaza as "very concerning."
Simon Harris emphasised that the people of Palestine have the right to decide their own future, stating that the focus must remain on a two-state solution.
Mr Harris said: "It's very clear that direction we're traveling here we need a two state solution, and the people of Palestine and the people of Israel both have a right to live in states, safely side by side, and that's where the focus has to be.
"Any idea of displacing the people of Gaza anywhere else would be a fair contradiction with UN Security Council resolutions."
Trump, in his first major Middle East policy announcement, said he envisioned building a resort where international communities could live in harmony after over 15 months of Israeli bombardment devastated the tiny coastal enclave and killed more than 47,000 people, by Palestinian tallies.
Trump's son-in-law and former aide, Jared Kushner, last year described Gaza as "valuable" waterfront property.
The casual proposal sent diplomatic shockwaves across the Middle East and around the globe. China said it opposed the forced transfer of Palestinians.
"China has always believed that Palestinians governing Palestine is the basic principle of post-conflict governance," China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said, adding Beijing backs a two-state solution in the region.
Some of the toughest criticism came from France, which said the forced displacement of Gazans would be a serious violation of international law, an attack on the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians and destabilise the region.
An official from Palestinian militant group Hamas, which ruled the Gaza Strip before fighting Israel in a brutal war there, said Trump's statement about taking over the enclave was "ridiculous and absurd".
"Any ideas of this kind are capable of igniting the region," Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters, saying Hamas remains committed to the ceasefire accord with Israel and "ensuring the success of the negotiation in the second phase".
It is not clear whether Trump will go ahead with his controversial plan or is simply taking an extreme position as a bargaining strategy.
Trump provided no specifics of his plan, unveiled at a joint press conference on Tuesday with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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".
Amnesty International Executive Director Paul O'Brien said removing all Palestinians from Gaza is "tantamount to destroying them as a people".
The announcement followed Trump's shock proposal earlier on Tuesday for the permanent resettlement of the more than two million Palestinians from Gaza to neighbouring countries.
A UN damage assessment released in January showed that clearing over 50 million tonnes of rubble left in Gaza after the war could take 21 years and cost up to $1.2 billion.
The US taking a direct stake in Gaza would run counter to longtime policy in Washington and for much of the international community, which has held that Gaza would be part of a future Palestinian state that includes the occupied West Bank.
"He's totally lost it...A US invasion of Gaza would lead to the slaughter of thousands of US troops and decades of war in the Middle East. It's like a bad, sick joke," said US Democratic Senator Chris Murphy.
Trump's proposal raises questions whether Middle East power Saudi Arabia would be willing to join a renewed US-brokered push for a historic normalisation of relations with US ally Israel.
Saudi Arabia, also a key US ally, rejects any attempts to displace the Palestinians from their land, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
Saudi Arabia said it would not establish ties with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state, contradicting Trump's claim that Riyadh was not demanding a Palestinian homeland.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has affirmed the kingdom's position in "a clear and explicit manner" that does not allow for any interpretation under any circumstances, the statement said.
Trump would like Saudi Arabia to follow in the footsteps of the United Arab Emirates, a Middle East trade and business hub, and Bahrain which signed the so-called Abraham Accords in 2020 and normalised ties with Israel.
In doing so, they became the first Arab states in a quarter century to break a longstanding taboo.
Trump said that he plans to visit Gaza, Israel and Saudi Arabia, but did not say when he plans to go.
Netanyahu would not be drawn into discussing the proposal, other than to praise Trump for trying a new approach.
The Israeli leader, whose military had engaged in more than a year of fierce fighting with Hamas militants in Gaza, said Trump was "thinking outside the box with fresh ideas" and was "showing willingness to puncture conventional thinking."
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."
Donald Trump's proposal to permanently resettle Palestinians and for the US to take "ownership" of the Gaza Strip has drawn criticism from all corners of the globe.
- : Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri called the US President's remarks "ridiculous and absurd" saying they were capable of "igniting the region". "We consider them a recipe for generating chaos and tension in the region because the people of Gaza will not allow such plans to pass," said Mr Abu Zuhri.
- : In a statement, Egyptian foreign minister Dr Badr Abdel Aati stressed Egypt's full support for the Palestinian government to rebuild Gaza "at an accelerated pace, without Palestinians leaving the Gaza Strip, especially with their attachment to their land and their refusal to leave it".
- : British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said that Palestinians "must be allowed home". Mr Starmer said the people of Palestine must be allowed to rebuild and the UK should "be with them in that rebuild on the way to a two-state solution".
- : Spokesperson for the French Foreign Ministry Christophe Lemoine said France is opposed to any forced displacement of Palestinians. He said it would constitute a serious violation of international law and would be a "major destabilising factor for our close partners Egypt and Jordan as well as for the entire region".
- : Saudi Arabia stated its "unequivocal rejection of any infringement on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people".
- : The Kremlin said Russia believes a settlement in the Middle East is only possible on the basis of a two-state solution.
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