‘Insane’: Trump’s call for US to ‘own’ Gaza denounced

Donald Trump’s call for the United States to “take over” and “own” Gaza after its Palestinian population is entirely displaced has prompted condemnations and forceful rejections of the proposal.While Trump had been calling for forcibly depopulating Gaza he took his proposal to a new level during a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, saying the US would acquire the Palestinian territory.Critics argue that Trump is not only advocating ethnic cleansing in Gaza but also proposing the acquisition of land by force in violation of the United Nations charter.Trump said that depopulating Gaza is necessary because it has been turned into a “demolition site” after more than 15 months of US-backed Israeli bombardment.“The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it,” Trump said.In recent months, Trump has also suggested that the US should take over the Panama Canal, Greenland and Canada.But his remarks on Gaza amid the immense suffering in the territory were especially jarring. It was met with rebuke from many rights campaigners.Abed Ayoub, executive director at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), said Trump’s proposal is “terrifying”.Ayoub said the US president’s comments are “insane”, but they should not be taken lightly, stressing that it was Israel’s plan all along to ethnically cleanse Gaza.“It would go against all norms and international law. This isn’t something that would be permitted to happen,” Ayoub told Al Jazeera.“But at this point, you’ve got to ask yourself, if you look at the past year and a half: How much does the international community, including Israel, really care about international law and norms?”He warned that displacing Palestinians would ignite a major backlash in Arab countries and throw the entire region into further turmoil.'Sick joke'Paul O’Brien, executive director at Amnesty International US, said removing all Palestinians from Gaza was “tantamount to destroying them as a people”.“Gaza is their home. Gaza’s death and destruction is a result of the government of Israel killing civilians by the thousands, often with US bombs,” he said.China’s foreign ministry said it opposes the forced transfer of the people of Gaza and hopes all parties will take ceasefire and post-conflict governance as an opportunity to bring the Palestinian issue back to a political settlement based on the two-state solution.US Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat, said on X: “He’s totally lost it.” Murphy added: “A US invasion of Gaza would lead to the slaughter of thousands of US troops and decades of war in the Middle East. It’s like a bad, sick joke.”

‘Insane’: Trump’s call for US to ‘own’ Gaza denounced

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Namibian Sun 2025-10-08

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‘Insane’: Trump’s call for US to ‘own’ Gaza denounced

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Namibian Sun 2025-10-08

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