Latest Update: Trump’s declaration US will ‘take over’ Gaza Strip sparks global condemnation ….Read More

Germany, China, Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia speak against announcement by US president as human rights groups say plan is ethnic cleansing

Trump’s Gaza plan ‘unacceptable’, says Turkish foreign minister
Turkey’s top diplomat on Wednesday criticised Donald Trump’s proposal for the United States to take over the Gaza Strip and resettle Palestinians in other countries.

“This is an unacceptable issue,” Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, told the official news agency Anadolu in broadcast comments. He said relocating Palestinians from Gaza was something “neither we nor the region can accept”.

“It is wrong to even bring it up for discussion,” he added, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

UN human rights office says Trump’s Gaza plan would breach international humanitarian law
Any forcible transfer in or deportation of people from occupied territory breaches international law, the UN human rights office (UNHR) said on Wednesday, in reference to Donald Trump’s claim that the US would take over the Gaza Strip and forcibly resettle the Palestinian population elsewhere.

“It is crucial that we move towards the next phase of the ceasefire, to release all hostages and arbitrarily detained prisoners, end the war and reconstruct Gaza, with full respect for international humanitarian law and international human rights law,” said the UNHR in a statement to Reuters.

“Any forcible transfer in or deportation of people from occupied territory is strictly prohibited,” it continued.

UK prime minister: Palestinians ‘must be allowed home, allowed to rebuild’ on way to two-state solution
Speaking in parliament in London, the British prime minister Keir Starmer has said Palestinians “must be allowed home.”

Starmer was responding to a question from Liberal Democrat Ed Davey, the leader of the third largest party in the House of Commons, and told lawmakers:

The most important issue on the ceasefire is, obviously that it’s sustained, and we see it through the phases. And that means that the remaining hostages come out, and the aid that’s desperately needed gets into Gaza at speed and at the volumes that are needed.

I have from the last few weeks two images fixed in my mind. The first is the image of Emily Damari reunited with her mother, which I found extremely moving.

The second was the image of thousands of Palestinians walking, literally walking through the rubble, to try to find their homes and their communities in Gaza.

They 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.

Starmer did not mention US president Donald Trump by name, nor did he respond to Davey’s suggestion that he should reassure lawmakers that “our concerns on these dangerous statements from the president will be communicated to the White House directly and firmly.”