Trump’s plan to turn Gaza in ‘the Riviera of the Middle East’, stems from his firm belief that there is no people called the Palestinian people in this land. [Artur Widak/NurPhoto/GETTY]
US President Donald Trump has sparked widespread controversy with his recent statements about controlling the Gaza Strip and displacing its population (2.3 million people) to neighbouring Arab countries, in what may be the most extreme proposal so far in his second term.
Trump proposed in a press conference held on February 4, 2025 at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States take “long-term ownership” of the Strip, with its redevelopment and transformation into a tourist area, saying that the people of Gaza live in “hell” and that they should be transferred to other places to live a better life as he alleged.
Hamas, which governs Gaza, rejected Trump’s statements.
Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for the Hamas movement, told The New Arab: “Trump’s statements are absurd and ridiculous and reflect his ignorance of the nature of the conflict in Palestine.”
He added: “If Trump thinks he can implement his foolish plan, he must first confront the resistance of our people, which has not been broken despite the Israeli massacres and the blockade.”
He added: “Our Palestinian people and the resistance factions will remain a major obstacle to any project targeting our national rights, and no one will be able to uproot us from our land or impose solutions that target our existence.”
For his part, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas expressed categorical rejection of calls to seize the Gaza Strip and displace Palestinians outside their homeland.
Abbas stressed that “the Palestinian people will not give up their land, rights and holy sites, and that the Gaza Strip is an integral part of the State of Palestine.”
Jordan and Egypt also rejected this idea, stressing their adherence to their positions rejecting the settlement of Palestinians outside their lands.
Popular disdain
“Gaza, in Trump’s eyes, is a resort overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, with large gas reserves just a few kilometers away,” Mohammed al-Saidi, 32, told TNA with a sarcastic smile as he worked to remove the rubble from his destroyed home. “Trump wants to clean Gaza, meaning to wipe out its population and build his own real estate empire.”
Al-Saidi downplayed the seriousness of Trump’s statements, saying, “It is ridiculous to give these stupid statements all this attention.”
Salma Rashid, a university lecturer in Gaza City who lost her husband during the Israeli war on the Strip, told TNA, “Trump appears to us as if he came from outer space. He is confused in his policy regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.”
She explained: “Sometimes we think that Trump looks at us with humanity when he says he supports a ceasefire, and other times we see him supporting the Israeli genocide of our people. Frankly, I do not know what Trump wants.”
Naji al-Madhoun, a university student from Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, commented on Trump’s statements, saying: “Does this crazy man believe that we are eternal nomads?”
He said that Trump’s plan, which seeks to displace Palestinians to Arab countries, must stem from his belief that there is no people called the Palestinian people in this land.
He added: “It seems similar to what Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir said in the 1970s (There is no Palestinian people. It’s not as if we came to throw them off the streets and take over their country. They don’t exist. There was a land without a people for a people without a land).”
While Doha is preparing to oversee a second phase of the ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel, Trump’s statements represent a detonator for this agreement, as Talal Okal, a writer for the local Al-Ayyam newspaper, said in an interview with TNA.
Awkal added that Trump himself “stated two days ago that there were no ‘guarantees’ for the continuation of the ceasefire agreement. He knew very well the bomb he was about to drop and the potential shockwave of his proposals.”
Awkal said that Trump’s statements regarding the Gaza Strip once again reveal the nature of his talkative and controversial personality, which has always exceeded the usual diplomatic boundaries in American politics.”
He added: “Trump, who thinks he can impose a new reality in Gaza, does not realize that implementing his plan requires more than just fiery statements or incitement to displace the Palestinians. The Palestinian people, who have stood firm in the face of the occupation for decades, will not submit to such ideas, and Trump will not be able to achieve his vision unless he resorts to using the nuclear bomb to end the Palestinian presence in the Strip.”
The Palestinians have had an internationally recognized right to statehood since the partition of the territories when the British Mandate ended in 1947, and Gaza is part of that state, as are the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Okal points out that Trump has a history of flouting international laws and resolutions, especially when he recognized the Golan Heights as Israeli, even though it is occupied Syrian territory.
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Dr. Salah Abd el-Ati, head of the International Committee to Support the Rights of the Palestinian People (Hashd), agrees with Awkal, telling TNA: “Trump’s statements regarding the displacement of Gaza residents represent a flagrant violation of international law and amount to a call for ethnic cleansing, a crime punishable by international humanitarian law and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”
He added that these statements reflect disregard for human values and the rights of peoples to self-determination, and contradict United Nations resolutions that affirm the right of Palestinians to remain on their land and reject any form of forced displacement.
Abd el-Ati believed that “any attempt to turn Gaza into an investment project or impose American guardianship over it ignores the historical and legal rights of the Palestinian people and contradicts the principle of national sovereignty.”