GAZA CITY: Hamas denounced on Monday a plan reportedly being considered by US President Donald Trump for the United States to take control of the devastated Gaza Strip and for its population to be relocated.
Almost two years since Israel attacked on Gaza, swathes of the Palestinian territory have been reduced to rubble and the vast majority of its population has been displaced at least once.
The Washington Post reported on Sunday that the White House was considering a plan that would see Gaza – home to roughly two million people – become a trusteeship administered by the United States for at least 10 years.
The goal would be to transform the territory into a tourism magnet and high-tech hub, according to the US newspaper, which cited a 38-page prospectus for the initiative.
The outline also calls for at least the temporary relocation of all of Gaza’s population, either through “voluntary” departures to other countries or into restricted, secured zones inside the territory.
Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida killed, claims Israel
Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim slammed the proposal on Monday, asserting “Gaza is not for sale.”
“Gaza is… part of the greater Palestinian homeland,” he added.
Trump first floated the idea in February of turning Gaza into “the Riviera of the Middle East” after moving out its Palestinian residents and putting it under American control.
The idea drew swift condemnation from across the Arab world, including from Palestinians themselves, for whom any effort to force them off their land would recall the “Nakba”, or catastrophe – the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel’s creation in 1948.
Another official from Hamas, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP the group “rejects all these plans that abandon our people and keep the occupier on our land”.
They said such proposals were “worthless and unjust”, adding that no details of the initiative had been communicated to Hamas.
‘Nonsense’
According to the Post, Gaza residents who own land would be given a digital token by the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust, or GREAT Trust, in exchange for the right to develop their property.
Recipients could use this token to start a new life somewhere else or eventually redeem it for an apartment in one of six to eight new “AI-powered, smart cities” to be built in the territory.
The State Department did not immediately reply to an AFP request for comment.
Qasem Habib, a 37-year-old Palestinian living in a tent in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City, told AFP the reported proposal was “nonsense”.
“If they want to help Gaza, the way is known: pressure (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu to stop the war and the killing.”
Fellow Gazan Wael Azzam, 60, living in the Al-Mawasi area near the southern city of Khan Yunis, said he had not “heard of the new American plan, but even without knowing it, it is a failed plan”.
“We were born and raised here,” he added, questioning whether the US president would accept displacement from his own home.
But Ahmed Al-Akkawi, 30, said he would back the proposal if it halted the fighting.
“The plan is excellent if the war stops and we are transferred to European countries to live a normal life, and if guarantees are made to rebuild Gaza,” he said.
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