Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas has strongly rejected US President Donald Trump’s proposal to “take over” and “own” the Gaza Strip.
“President Mahmud Abbas and the Palestinian leadership expressed their strong rejection of calls to seize the Gaza Strip and displace Palestinians outside their homeland,” Abbas’s office disclosed in a statement, adding that “legitimate Palestinian rights are not negotiable.”.
Reading the statement on Palestinian public television, Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina emphasised that the Gaza Strip “is an integral part of the State of Palestine.”.
The Palestine Liberation Organisation, a coalition of forces led by Abbas, also rejected Trump’s suggestion to relocate Gazans to Egypt or Jordan.
Hussein al-Sheikh, the secretary general, stated that it rejects “all calls for the displacement of Palestinians from their homeland.”
During a Tuesday visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump mentioned plans by the US to “take over” Gaza and “do a good job” in developing the region while putting an end to the Israeli-Palestinian tussle over the area.
The president says the US could “do a real job” by removing unexploded bombs and economically redeveloping the territory into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”
He also proposed that Palestinians should be resettled outside of Gaza while it was rebuilt, though countries throughout the Middle East have previously rejected this proposal.
“The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it to own it and be responsible for dismantling the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, and create economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area,” Trump said.
While Palestine kicks against the decision, Netanyahu, the first foreign leader to visit in the US president’s second term, said Trump’s plan was an idea “worth paying attention to.”
