The Arab world and many world leaders have rejected President Donald Trump’s plan, outlined on Feb. 4, that the United States would take over the Gaza Strip.
Internationally, key nations, including U.S. allies, rejected it outright.
Saudi Arabia, with which Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are hoping to normalize relations with Israel, reiterated it won’t normalize without the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Its foreign ministry also opposed Trump’s plan to resettle Gaza’s current residents elsewhere.
France’s foreign ministry, opposing the plan, was quoted in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz as saying it “would 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 destabilizing factor for our close partners Egypt and Jordan as well as for the entire region.”
Jordan’s King Abdullah rejected any attempt to annex land and displace Palestinians, according to the Times of Israel.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in the British Parliament that the Palestinians “must be allowed home, they must be allowed to rebuild, and we should be with them in that rebuild on the way to a two-state solution.”
Spain and Russia both reiterated support for a two-state solution.
The terrorist group Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since Israel’s 2005 pullout, opposed the proposal, with spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri calling Trump’s remarks “ridiculous and absurd” and “a recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region.”
Hamas began the war that led to Gaza’s devastation with its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel in which 1,200 people, primarily Israeli civilians but also foreign nationals and hundreds of Israeli troops—were killed, 251 taken hostage, and thousands wounded.
Israel’s retaliatory attack on Gaza has taken more than 46,000 lives, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas. The organization does not distinguish between civilians and terrorists.
Israel says that close to half of the casualties were terrorists and half of the remainder were used as human shields.
Trump made the declaration about the Gaza Strip during a press conference at the White House after an hour-long private chat with Netanyahu, who is visiting Washington this week.
The president cited the war zone’s unlivable conditions and long history of violence and failure as part of his thinking that it was time to try something new.
Trump repeated his earlier proposal that about 1.7 million Gazans relocate to Egypt and Jordan with safe, clean communities built for them there.
Meanwhile, the United States would secure Gaza, clear the rubble and unexploded bombs, and turn it into an international community, a “Riviera.”
He hasn’t provided details or said whether the current residents would be allowed to return.
Former Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, in a social media post, praised Trump.
He said encouraging Gazans to emigrate was the only correct strategy to end the war between Israel and Hamas.
He urged Netanyahu—whose governing coalition Ben Gvir quit over the Jan. 19 cease-fire—to adopt that policy “immediately.”
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, still in Netanyahu’s coalition but threatening to leave if war is not resumed to destroy Hamas, thanked Trump in a social media post.
According to Haaretz, Smotrich quoted a popular Hebrew song’s lyrics: “[It will keep getting] better and better. Together, we will make the world great again.”
In a published statement, Smotrich said: “The plan presented yesterday by President Trump is the true answer to Oct. 7. Whoever committed the most terrible massacre on our land will find himself losing his land forever.”
