‘Gaza not for sale’: Hamas condemns US plan for takeover of Gaza
‘Gaza not for sale’: Hamas condemns US plan for takeover of Gaza
M.U.H
02/09/202528
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has condemned a plan reportedly under consideration by US President Donald Trump that will place the Gaza Strip under American control and forcibly relocate its population.
On Monday, Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim emphasized that “Gaza is not for sale. Gaza is... part of the greater Palestinian homeland.”
His remarks came as The Washington Post reported Sunday that it had obtained a 38-page prospectus outlining a plan to place the Gaza Strip under US trusteeship for at least a decade, transforming it into a tourist destination and high-tech hub.
According to the report, Gaza’s more than two million people would at least be temporarily relocated, either through “voluntary” departures to other countries or into restricted zones inside the territory.
In February, Trump openly expressed his desire to transform Gaza into what he referred to as the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
The plan would require Gaza’s existing population to be emptied out. Legal experts have warned that forcible displacement on such a scale would amount to ethnic cleansing.
Another official from Hamas, who asked not to be named, told AFP, the resistance movement “rejects all these plans that abandon our people and keep the occupier on our land.”
They said such proposals were “worthless and unjust,” noting that no details of the plan had been communicated to Hamas.
Qasem Habib, a 37-year-old Palestinian living in a tent in the al-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City, slammed the reported proposal as “nonsense.”
“If they want to help Gaza, the way is known: pressure (Israeli prime minister Benjamin) Netanyahu to stop the war and the killing.”
Another Gazan, 60-year-old Wael Azzam, who is living in the al-Mawasi area near the southern city of Khan Yunis, said he had not “heard of the new American plan, but even without knowing it, it is a failed plan.”
“We were born and raised here,” he added, questioning whether Trump would accept displacement from his own home.
The Washington Post report came as Israel is pushing ahead with a plan to occupy the entire Gaza Strip, starting with Gaza City, the largest city in the territory.
On Monday, Israel sent tanks deeper into Gaza City, as Netanyahu convened his so-called “security cabinet” late on Sunday to discuss a new offensive to seize the area.
According to Palestinian officials and witnesses, the regime’s troops also sent old armored vehicles into the eastern parts of the overcrowded Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, detonated them remotely, destroying several houses and forcing more families to leave.
Since Monday morning, at least 50 Palestinians have been killed in airstrikes. Residential neighborhoods across Gaza City have been heavily bombed, destroying homes and claiming civilian lives.
Israel has launched a genocidal war on Gaza since October 7, 2023, after Palestinian resistance fighters carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the Zionist entity in response to the regime's decades-long campaign of death and destruction against Palestinians.
Since October 2023, Israel's genocidal war on the Gaza Strip has killed at least 63,557 Palestinians and wounded 160,660 others.
