World leaders reject Donald Trump's plan for Gaza

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United States President Donald Trump’s proposal that the United States “take over” the Gaza Strip and permanently resettle its Palestinian residents has been swiftly rejected and denounced by American allies and adversaries.

Trump’s suggestion came at a White House news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“The US 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.”

Netanyahu, 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.”

The comments came amid a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, during which the militant group has been turning over hostages in exchange for the release of prisoners held by Israel.

A ‘recipe for creating chaos’

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.

Hamas, which sparked the war with its 7 October, 2023 attack on Israel, said Trump’s proposal was a “recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region.”

“Instead of holding the Zionist occupation accountable for the crime of genocide and displacement, it is being rewarded, not punished,” the militant group said in a statement.

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.

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.”

‘I thought we voted for America first’

The proposal has divided the Republican party, with some expressing concern and others backing the “bold” idea.

Sceptical politicians said they still favoured the two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians that has long been a foundation of US diplomacy. Some also rejected the idea of spending US taxpayer dollars or sending in US troops to a region that has been devastated by more than a year of war.

“I thought we voted for America first,” Republican Senator Rand Paul wrote on X.

“We have no business contemplating yet another occupation to doom our treasure and spill our soldiers blood.”

Republicans hold narrow majorities in Congress over Democrats, who rejected the idea outright.

“That is ethnic cleansing by another name,” Senator Chris Van Hollen said on MSNBC.

Senator Chris Coons called Trump’s 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, noting the irony of the proposal coming shortly after Trump had moved to dismantle the US Agency for International Development.

Republican Senator Jerry Moran said the idea of a two-state solution cannot just be thrown out. “It’s not something that can be unilaterally decided,” he told reporters.

Senator Lisa Murkowski said she would not speculate about any possible proposal to send US forces into a region “that has seen enough turmoil.”

“I don’t even want to speculate to that question, because I think that is quite frightening,” she said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson praised the plan as “bold, decisive action to try to secure the peace of that region.”

Democrat 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.