Key points:
• World must respect Palestinians’ desires
• Hamas, PLO reject forced displacement
• Trump unveils plan to take over Gaza
WASHINGTON: International Community and rights groups have expressed their reactions to US President Donald Trump’s shocking proposal to take over the Gaza Strip forcibly displacing Palestinians from the besieged enclave.
Riyad Mansour, the leader of the Palestinian delegation to the United Nations, said Palestinians in Gaza should be allowed to reclaim what were once their homes in Israel. “For those who want to send the Palestinian people to a ‘nice place’, allow them to go back to their original homes in what is now Israel,” he said, using Trump’s language, according to Al-Jazeera.
“The Palestinian people want to rebuild Gaza because this is where we belong,” he said.
World leaders and people should respect Palestinians’ desire to remain in Gaza, the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations said Tuesday.
The Palestinian people want to rebuild Gaza because this is where we belong.” – Palestinian envoy UN Riyad Mansour
Hamas, PLO
According to Al Jazeera Hamas released a statement in response to Trump, saying his plans are “a recipe for creating tension in the region. Our people in the Gaza Strip will not allow these plans to pass”.
Palestine Liberation Organisation Meanwhile, the Palestine Liberation Organisation has said that it rejected any plan involving the displacement of Palestinians after President Donald Trump suggested Gazans move to Egypt or Jordan and the United States “take control” of the territory.
Secretary General Hussein al-Sheikh said the PLO “affirms its rejection of all calls for the displacement of the Palestinian people from their homeland” and renews its support for a two-state solution, according to AFP.
China
China on Wednesday said it was opposed to the “forced transfer” of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip after US President Donald Trump said he planned to “take control” of the territory.
“China has always maintained that Palestinian rule over Palestinians is the basic principle of the post-war governance of Gaza, and we are opposed to the forced transfer of the residents of Gaza,” AFP cited Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said when asked about Trump’s plan at a regular press conference.
Al Jazeera reported that Trump said he wants the US to take over the war-shattered Gaza Strip after Palestinians are displaced to neighbouring countries, and develop the territory so the “world’s people” will live there.
Trump unveiled his shocking plan during a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday.
Media reports said that protesters gathered in Washington, DC, to slam Netanyahu’s visit, accusing Trump of inviting a “war criminal” into the White House.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 61,700 people, according to a revised toll by the Gaza Government Media Office, which says thousands of missing people are now presumed dead.
Russia
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said “There are Israeli plans to take full control of the occupied West Bank and attempts to displace Palestinians from the Gaza Strip,” Al Jazeera reported.
It said, “Practicing a policy of collective punishment is a method that Russia rejects”.
Amnesty International
Paul O’Brien, executive director at Amnesty International US, said that removing all Palestinians from Gaza was “tantamount to destroying them as a people”, Al Jazeera stated.
“Gaza is their home. Gaza’s death and destruction is a result of the government of Israel killing civilians by the thousands, often with US bombs,” Al Jazeera cited Paul O’Brien as saying. With input from AFP
