Donald Trump’s plans for the US to take over Gaza have been met with anger and dismay across the Arab world, and raised fears of reigniting conflict in the region.
The US president said on Tuesday evening the US should “take over” the devastated Gaza Strip, swaths of which are in ruins after more than a year of war between Israel and Hamas, and that the 2.2mn Palestinian population should be resettled.
As Palestinian leaders said they would defy any attempts to remove them from their land, Badr Albusaidi, Oman’s foreign minister, said that “any attempt at forced resettlement would be a very serious crime” that “would also condemn the region to a state of perpetual instability.”
Saudi Arabia, considered Trump’s closest ally in the oil-rich Gulf region, rejected the displacement of Palestinians and said it would not hold peace talks with Israel unless an independent Palestinian state was created.
Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has previously labelled Israel’s assault, which killed about 47,000 people in Gaza, as a “genocide”.
The kingdom’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that the country would “not establish diplomatic relations with Israel” without an independent Palestinian state, adding that its position was “non-negotiable and not subject to compromises”.
After brokering normalisation deals between Israel and Gulf states the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain during his first term, Trump was widely expected to pursue a deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
But Israel’s war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack, hardened Riyadh’s attitude towards Israel and has seen it renew a commitment towards an independent Palestinian state.
Arab states have long rejected any further expulsion of Palestinians. The exodus of Palestinians during the creation of Israel in 1948, known to Palestinians as the Nakba or catastrophe, created waves of displacement into neighbouring countries and triggered years of instability in the region.
Neighbouring Jordan and Egypt have previously rebuffed Trump’s suggestion that they should accept displaced Palestinian refugees.
The US president’s refusal this week to rule out using American soldiers to secure Gaza will rekindle memories of the disastrous 2003 US invasion and occupation of Iraq, which further destabilised the region and sullied America’s reputation in the Middle East.
In remarks cited by state television on Wednesday, Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty said it was important to speed up the delivery of aid to Gaza without Palestinians leaving the territory. He added that Egypt supported the “inalienable” rights of the Palestinian people as well as a two-state solution.
In line with the stance of other Arab and European states, Abdelatty called on the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the occupied West Bank, to assume responsibility for Gaza.
Hamas, the militant group that has controlled Gaza since 2007, said Trump’s “irresponsible” statements were “aggressive to our people and cause, will not serve stability in the region and will only pour fuel on the fire”.
It called on the Arab League, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and the UN “to convene urgently . . . and to take a firm and historic position that preserves the Palestinian people’s national rights”.
Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the PA, denounced what he called “a serious violation of international law”, arguing that only a two-state solution would bring peace and stability to the region.
He added: “We will not allow the rights of our people, for which we have struggled for decades and made great sacrifices to achieve, to be infringed upon.”
Beyond the Arab world, allies of the US and Israel appeared to reject Trump’s proposal.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said Palestinians in Gaza “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”.
Speaking to MPs on Wednesday, Starmer avoided direct criticism of Trump, but evoked “the image of thousands of Palestinians walking, literally walking through the rubble, to try to find their homes and their communities in Gaza” and called for a “sustained” ceasefire in the enclave.
France rejected any “third party” control of Gaza, a reference to Trump’s plan for the strip.
Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan said Trump’s remarks on Gaza were “unacceptable”.
In comments to state agency Anadolu, he added: “Neither we nor the region would accept a deportation from Gaza. Why put forth proposals that do not stop the conflict but will bring more conflict?”
Additional reporting by Lucy Fisher in London