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President Donald Trump’s plans for the United States resume Gaza were greeted by anger and dismay in the Arab world and have raised fears that rekindling conflicts in the region.
The American president said on Tuesday evening We should “take over” The devastated Gaza Strip, whose bands are in ruins after more than a year of war with Israel, and which the Palestinian population of 2.2 million should be reinstalled.
Palestinian leaders said on Wednesday that they would challenge all attempts to withdraw them from their land.
A senior official of the Islamist militant group and the power in power of Gaza, Sami Abu Zuhri, said that the people of Gaza “Would not allow these plans to pass”, and called Trump’s comments “recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region”.
Hussein Al-Sheikh, Secretary General of the Executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, said that the Palestinian management remained attached to a solution to two states and “affirms its rejection of all the calls for the displacement of the Palestinian people of their homeland” .
The PLO is linked to the Palestinian Authority, which exerts limited autonomy in certain parts of the West Bank and is considered by international diplomats as having a potential role in the governance of Gaza of post-war period.
Arab states have long rejected any other expulsion from the Palestinians. The exodus of the Palestinians when the Jewish state was created in 1948, known to the Palestinians under the name of Nakba or Catastrophe, created waves of travel in neighboring countries and triggered years of instability in the region .
Jordan and neighboring Egypt, who have not yet responded to Trump’s comments, had already rejected Trump’s suggestion that they should accept the displaced Palestinian refugees.
Trump’s intention to secure Gaza with American soldiers will also repeat memories of the disastrous invasion of the United States of Iraq, which has still destabilized the region and jumped the reputation of America in the Arab world.
Trump’s intervention also threatens to undermine his goal of doing more to normalize relations between Israel and Arab states in the region.
Saudi Arabia, considered the ally closest to Trump in the Gulf region rich in oil, rejected the trip of the Palestinians on Wednesday and said that it would not hold peace talks with Israel unless An independent Palestinian state has been created.
After having succeeded in making a brokerage of normalization negotiations between Israel and the Gulf, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain during his first mandate, Trump was largely concluded an agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
But the War of Israel against Gaza, triggered by Hamas in October 2023, hardened Riyadh’s attitude towards Israel and saw him renew a commitment to an independent Palestinian State.
The crown prince of Saudi Arabia and the de facto chief, Mohammed Bin Salman, previously described the fierce assault of Israel – who killed around 47,000 people in Gaza – as a “genocide”.
The Kingdom’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Saudi Arabia “will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel” without an independent Palestinian state and stressed that this position was “non -negotiable and not subject to compromises”.
