TEHRAN - US President Donald Trump’s insistence on his proposal to take control of the Gaza Strip has made it crystal clear that he is developing Israel’s nefarious schemes for the Palestinian territory. 

The US president said on Sunday that he is “committed to buying and owning Gaza.” 

Trump, who was a real estate developer before entering politics, said he views the Palestinian enclave as a “big real estate site.”

“I think that it’s a big mistake to allow people — the Palestinians, or the people living in Gaza — to go back yet another time, and we don’t want Hamas going back. And think of it as a big real estate site, and the United States is going to own it and we’ll slowly — very slowly, we’re in no rush — develop it. We’re going to bring stability to the Middle East soon,” he said. 

Hamas has denounced Trump’s proposal to “buy and own” Gaza, saying Palestinians will foil all displacement and deportation plans The Palestinian Hamas resistance movement came down hard on the businessman-turned-politician.

“Gaza is not a property that can be bought and sold, and it is an integral part of our occupied Palestinian land… Dealing with the Palestinian issue with the mentality of a real estate dealer is a recipe for failure,” Izzat al-Risheq, a senior Hamas member, said. 

He added, “Our Palestinian people will thwart all displacement and deportation plans. Gaza belongs to its people.”
Trump first came up with his controversial proposal last week. 

“The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too,” Trump said during a joint press conference alongside visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House on February 4. 

Trump had originally suggested the option of sending American troops to Gaza to implement his plan; however, he later stated that such action is unnecessary.

He has stressed that Palestinians in Gaza should leave the territory exerting pressure on regional countries, in particular Jordan and Egypt to house them. 

Trump’s idea has promoted backlash not only from regional countries but also from Washington’s Western allies. 

Netanyahu, however, has heaped praise on Trump, describing his idea as “revolutionary” and “creative”.

Since Israel launched war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, it has made futile attempts to forcibly transfer Palestinians from Gaza to pave the way for settlers to move in. Palestinians have foiled Israel’s plot by putting up stiff resistance. The resilience of Palestinians also pushed Israel to agree to a ceasefire after more than 15 months of war which left nearly 62,000 people dead in Gaza. 

Trump has claimed that he wants to turn Gaza into “the Riviera of the Middle East”.

Nonetheless, UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric has rejected his proposal saying “any forced displacement of people is tantamount to ethnic cleansing.”

Israel failed to eliminate Hamas and bring Palestinians to their knees after destroying much of Gaza. For now, Trump’s ethnic cleaning plan for the territory amounts to embarking on a lost cause.