President Donald Trump’s assertion that the United States would pursue ownership of the Gaza Strip and that the Palestinians would be forced to evacuate their homes in the war-torn enclave was denounced by indignant Palestinians.
The 29-year-old Narmin Nour El Din told an NBC News crew in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, that all Palestinians would strongly oppose Trump’s proposals.
Standing outside a tent encampment, she declared, “We will be adamant on our land and all the Palestinians reject the idea.”
We request that Trump let the people reside on their land and improve its aesthetics. She said, to help the people here. not to rob them of Gaza.
Others, like 25-year-old Hussein Abdel Jawad, expressed their anxiety that Trump’s plan would be successful and that it was obvious that he had commercial aspirations for the area.
Trump stated that the United States would assume a long-term ownership role and provide significant stability to the Middle East during a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday.
He said, “We’ll own it.”
When asked who would reside in the area he saw as the Middle East’s Riviera Trump, a seasoned real estate entrepreneur, responded, “The people of the world.”
In remarks that contrasted sharply with his earlier remarks in the day, in which he frequently referred to Gaza as a demolition site from which Palestinians should be evacuated, he stated that Palestinians will also reside there among many others.
The plan’s disregard for the Palestinian cause, which is the establishment of an internationally recognized state, has drawn criticism. Despite decades of stagnant negotiations, the United States, the Palestinians, and the international community have long viewed Gaza as an essential component of this eventual state.
Trump’s idea also brings to mind the 1948 exodus of some 700,000 Palestinians who were forced to leave their homes in order to establish Israel, a phenomenon known by the Arabic word for calamity, the Nakba.
Politicians from all sides of the Palestinian spectrum also condemned the remarks.
The idea revealed Trump’s uncertainty and profound ignorance, according to Izzat Al-Rishq, a senior member of Hamas, which ruled Gaza after 2007 and carried out the biggest terror attack in Israeli history on October 7, 2023. The group has survived 15 months of war since then.