Trump’s plan for the United States to take over and redevelop the Gaza Strip while relocating its residents found few supporters abroad.
The Arab world and many world leaders have rejected President Donald Trump’s plan, outlined on Feb. 4, that the United States would take over the Gaza Strip.
Internationally, key nations, including U.S. allies, rejected it outright.
Saudi Arabia, with which Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are hoping to normalize relations with Israel, reiterated it won’t normalize without the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Its foreign ministry also opposed Trump’s plan to resettle Gaza’s current residents elsewhere.
France’s foreign ministry, opposing the plan, was quoted in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz as saying, “[The plan] would constitute a serious violation of international law, an attack on the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians, but also a major obstacle to the two-state solution and a major destabilizing factor for our close partners Egypt and Jordan as well as for the entire region.”
Jordan’s King Abdullah rejected any attempt to annex land and displace Palestinians, according to the Times of Israel.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in the British Parliament, “[The Palestinians] must be allowed home, they must be allowed to rebuild, and we should be with them in that rebuild on the way to a two-state solution.”
Spain and Russia both reiterated support for a two-state solution.
The terrorist group Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since Israel’s 2005 pullout, opposed the proposal, with spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri calling Trump’s remarks “ridiculous and absurd” and “a recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region.”
Hamas began the war that led to Gaza’s devastation with its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel in which 1,200 people, primarily Israeli civilians but also foreign nationals and hundreds of Israeli troops—were killed, 251 taken hostage, and thousands wounded.
Israel’s retaliatory attack on Gaza has taken more than 46,000 lives, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas. The organization does not distinguish between civilians and terrorists.
Israel said that close to half of the casualties were terrorists and half of the remainder were used as human shields.
By Dan M. Berger
