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Donald Trump’s plans for the US to take over Gaza have been met with anger and dismay across the Arab world, and raised fears of reigniting conflict in the region.
The US president on Tuesday evening said the US should “take over” the devastated Gaza Strip, swaths of which are in ruins after more than a year of war between Israel and Hamas, and that the 2.2mn Palestinian population should be resettled.
Palestinian leaders on Wednesday said they would defy any attempts to remove them from their land.
“The statements [by Trump] are aggressive to our people and cause, will not serve stability in the region and will only pour fuel on the fire,” Hamas, the militant group which has controlled Gaza since 2007, said on Wednesday.
“We call on the US administration and President Trump to retract these irresponsible statements. We call on the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and the UN to convene urgently . . . and to take a firm and historic position that preserves the Palestinian people’s national rights.”
Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, said: “We will not allow the rights of our people, for which we have struggled for decades and made great sacrifices to achieve, to be infringed upon.
“These calls represent a serious violation of international law”.
He added: “Peace and stability will not be achieved in the region without the establishment of a Palestinian state . . . based on the two-state solution.”
European and Arab states have been pushing for the PA, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the occupied West Bank, to have a role in governing postwar Gaza.
Arab states have long rejected any further expulsion of Palestinians. The exodus of Palestinians during the creation of Israel in 1948, known to Palestinians as the Nakba or catastrophe, created waves of displacement into neighbouring countries and triggered years of instability in the region.
Neighbouring Jordan and Egypt have previously rebuffed Trump’s suggestion that they should accept displaced Palestinian refugees.
In remarks cited by state television on Wednesday, Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty said it was important to proceed with recovery programmes in Gaza. He also said it was important to speed up the delivery of aid without Palestinians leaving the territory.
Abdelatty’s remarks came after a meeting with Mohammad Mustafa, the PA’s foreign minister. Abdelatty said the PA should assume responsibility for Gaza and that Egypt supported the “inalienable” rights of the Palestinian people as well as a two-state solution. Jordan has yet to respond to Trump’s latest comments.
Trump’s threat to secure Gaza with American soldiers will rekindle memories of the disastrous 2003 US invasion and occupation of Iraq, which further destabilised the region and sullied America’s reputation in the Arab world.
Trump’s intervention also threatens to undermine his aim of doing more to normalise relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia and other Muslim states.
Saudi Arabia, considered Trump’s closest ally in the oil-rich Gulf region, on Wednesday rejected the displacement of Palestinians and said it would not hold peace talks with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state was created.
After successfully brokering normalisation deals between Israel and Gulf states the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain during his first term, Trump was widely expected to pursue a deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
But Israel’s war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack, hardened Riyadh’s attitude towards Israel and has seen it renew a commitment towards an independent Palestinian state.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has previously labelled Israel’s assault, which killed about 47,000 people in Gaza, as a “genocide”.
The kingdom’s foreign ministry said Saudi Arabia “will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel” without an independent Palestinian state and stressed that this position was “non-negotiable and not subject to compromises”.
Beyond the Arab world, countries including France and Russia signalled their support for the two-state solution. France rejected “third party” control of Gaza, a reference to Trump’s plan for the enclave.
Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan said Trump’s remarks on Gaza were “unacceptable”.
In comments to state agency Anadolu, he added: “Neither we nor the region would accept a deportation from Gaza. Why put forth proposals that do not stop the conflict but will bring more conflict?”