Live Updates: World Officials Reject Trump’s Gaza Takeover Proposal
Key Middle East partners and European leaders swiftly opposed President Trump’s idea to force Palestinians out of Gaza and make it a U.S. territory. Experts said the plan would violate international law.
Palestinians stand in the ruins of a building in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on Wednesday.Credit...Hatem Khaled/Reuters
Qasim Nauman Lara Jakes and Aaron Boxerman
Here are the latest developments.
President Trump’s brazen proposal to move all Palestinians out of Gaza and make it a U.S. territory met with immediate opposition on Wednesday from key American partners and officials around the world, with many expressing support for a Palestinian state as experts called it a breach of international law.
The proposal also threatens a U.S. ambition for normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. In a statement issued before 4 a.m. local time, Saudi Arabia expressed its “unequivocal rejection” of attempts to displace Palestinians and reiterated that it would not establish diplomatic ties with Israel in the absence of an independent Palestinian state.
Egypt’s foreign ministry said in a separate statement that aid and recovery programs for Gaza must begin “without the Palestinians leaving.”
Gaza has been devastated by Israel’s military campaign against Hamas since the militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Speaking alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at the White House on Tuesday evening, Mr. Trump described Gaza as “a demolition site” that the United States would rebuild into “ the Riviera of the Middle East.”
Hamas has ruled in Gaza for most of the past two decades and has begun re-establishing control there since a cease-fire took effect last month. The group immediately rejected the idea of a mass relocation of the territory’s roughly two million Palestinians, a politically explosive proposal in a region with a long and bloody history of forced displacement.
Riyad Mansour, the leader of the Palestinian delegation to the United Nations, said that world leaders should respect Palestinians’ desire to rebuild Gaza themselves. Those who want to send Gazans “to a happy ‘nice place,’” Mr. Mansour said, using language that Mr. Trump had employed, should “let them go back, you know, to their original homes inside Israel.”
The Geneva Conventions prohibit the forcible relocation of populations. The United States and Israel have both ratified the conventions.
Here is what else to know:- Around the world: Mr. Trump brought together allies and adversaries alike in opposition to his proposal, though some sought to strike a balance by not criticizing him directly.
- Against the law: The proposition would unquestionably be a severe violation of international law, experts say. Forced deportation or transfer of a civilian population is a violation of international humanitarian law, a war crime and a crime against humanity.
- Swift rejection: Mr. Trump has floated the idea of Palestinians leaving Gaza multiple times in recent days, including a proposal to move them to Egypt and Jordan. That was rejected last week by a broad group of Arab nations, including Saudi Arabia, in addition to Egypt and Jordan.
- Reaction in Israel: It was not clear whether Mr. Netanyahu was expecting Mr. Trump to announce such a proposal, but he smiled as the president talked about moving all Palestinians out of Gaza. Back home, far-right Israeli politicians celebrated Mr. Trump’s proposals as a vindication of their long-held dreams of the mass departure of Palestinians from Gaza. “It is now clear: this is the only solution,” said Itamar Ben-Gvir, until recently the country’s national security minister.
nytimes.com |
