Hamas says Trump’s plan to take over Gaza will pour ‘oil on the fire’
Hamas on Wednesday condemned a proposal by US President Donald Trump to “take over” and “own” Gaza, saying it will fan the flames of Middle East violence.
Hamas said in a statement that the proposal “aiming for the United States to occupy the Gaza Strip” was “aggressive to our people and cause, won’t serve stability in the region, and will only put oil on the fire”.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said the call for Palestinians in Gaza to be ethnically cleansed was an “expulsion from their land”.
“Trump’s remarks about his desire to control Gaza are ridiculous and absurd, and any ideas of this kind are capable of igniting the region,” Abu Zuhri said. “We consider them [the plan] a recipe for generating chaos and tension in the region because the people of Gaza will not allow such plans to pass.”
Another senior Hamas official, Izzat el-Reshiq, said the proposal “will only put oil on the fire”.
“These statements reflect confusion and deep ignorance about Palestine and the region. Gaza is certainly not a common land nor a property that can be bought and sold. American bias towards Israel and against our Palestinian people and their just rights continues,” he said.
Palestine Liberation Organisation
Secretary-General Hussein al-Sheikh said the PLO rejects all calls for the displacement of the Palestinian people from their homeland.
“The Palestinian leadership affirms its firm position that the two-state solution, by international legitimacy and international law, is the guarantee of security, stability, and peace,” he said on X.
Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas strongly rejected any plans to displace Palestinians from Gaza, saying “we will not allow any infringement of the rights of our people, which we have struggled for decades and made great sacrifices to achieve”.
“These calls represent a serious violation of international law,” he said. “Peace and stability will not be achieved in the region without establishing a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital on the borders of 1967, based on the two-state solution.”
Palestinian Islamic Jihad
“Trump’s positions and plans are a dangerous escalation that threatens Arab and regional national security, especially in Egypt and Jordan, which the US administration wants to put in confrontation with the Palestinian people and their rights,” PIJ said.
Hezbollah
A Hezbollah official has described US plans to move Palestinians out of Gaza as “criminal orders”.
The comments by Hussein Moussawi, political advisor to the group’s secretary general, were published in a statement from Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, the Iran-backed Houthi group said Yemen “stands beside Palestine in confronting all forms of aggression against the Palestinian cause”.
