Palestinian militant group Hamas on Wednesday rejected US President Donald Trump’s plan to “take control” of the Gaza Strip. The group described the plan as “racist” and said it was intended to “eliminate the Palestinian cause.”
Hamas spokesman Abdel Latif al-Qanou issued a statement saying, “The American racist stance aligns with the Israeli extreme right’s position in displacing our people and eliminating our cause.”
The response comes after Donald Trump’s proposal that the United States “take over” the Gaza Strip and permanently resettle its Palestinian residents. Trump’s suggestion came at a White House news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who smiled several times as the president detailed a plan to build new settlements for Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip, and for the US to take “ownership” in redeveloping the war-torn territory into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”
“The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Trump said. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs.”
Hamas also said that it rejects Trump’s suggestion that Gaza residents should leave the territory.
“Instead of holding the Zionist occupation accountable for the crime of genocide and displacement, it is being rewarded, not punished,” Hamas said in the statement. “We reject Trump’s statements in which he said that the residents of the Gaza Strip have no choice but to leave, and we consider them a recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region.”