At a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump described on Tuesday the Gaza Strip as a “demolition site” – and called for another area where Palestinians from Gaza can move permanently.
Trump also said the United States will “own” Gaza, and that American soldiers may be sent to the area. At the same time, he claims that Gaza, home for more than two million Palestinians, has the potential to become “Middle East Riviera”.
– I imagine that the people of the world live there.
Netanyahu has answered the president’s proposal by calling him “the biggest friend Israel has ever had in the White House”.
An Israeli political source tells the Reuters news agency on Wednesday that Donald Trump came up with “brilliant solutions” on problems that have persecuted the state of Israel since its creation in 1948.
“The craziest I’ve seen”
But not everyone is as positive.
On the contrary, the play has aroused strong reactions, from both Palestinians and other countries in the region, international law experts and world leaders.
Hamas representative Sami Abu Zuhri says in a statement to Reuters that Trump’s comments are “ridiculous and absurd”.
– All ideas of this kind risk setting the region on fire.
Another spokesman for Hamas describes it as “the racist American line is in line with the position of the Israeli extreme right”.
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas has rejected all plans to expel Palestinians from Gaza.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab Association states in a joint statement that they do not support any proposals to move people from Gaza or the West Bank.
The focus has been shifted
But what Trump really means that the United States will “take over” Gaza, if anyone knows. And Experts mean that the plan would be a serious violation of international law.
– It is undoubtedly the craziest proposal I have seen from a political leader during my lifetime, says Pål Wrange, professor of international law at Stockholm University, to the News Agency TT.
It remains to be seen what impact the play will have on the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and the conversations about phase two that are supposed to start in Qatar this week.
– It is certain that the focus of the world has now been shifted, says SVT’s foreign reporter Stina Blomgren, in place in Lebanon.