DIPLOMATIC BACKLASH: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, speaking during a pre-election debate, said that the US president’s Gaza plan was ‘a scandal’
AFP, JERUSALEM
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday praised a proposal from US President Donald Trump for US control of Gaza and the displacement of its population as “revolutionary,” striking a triumphant tone in a statement to his Cabinet following his return to Israel from Washington.
Trump set out a plan last week to move Gazans out of the territory to other nations in the region, while the US would take charge of redeveloping it, sparking a diplomatic backlash.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, Palestinians on Sunday were able to cross the Netzarim Corridor, a strategic zone cutting the narrow territory in two, after Israeli troops were said to have withdrawn.
People on Sunday travel from the south of the Gaza Strip toward the north following the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Netzarim Corridor.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“Israeli forces have dismantled their positions … and completely withdrawn their tanks from the Netzarim Corridor on Salaheddin Road, allowing vehicles to pass freely in both directions,” an official from the Hamas-run ministry of interior said.
Journalists saw no troops in the area, as cars, buses, pickup trucks and donkey carts traveled north and south along the road.
Gaza resident Mahmoud al-Sarhi said “arriving at the Netzarim Corridor meant death until this morning.”
This is “the first time I saw our destroyed house,” he said of his home in the nearby Zeitun area. “The entire area is in ruins. I cannot live here.”
A senior Hamas official said the Israeli withdrawal from the Netzarim Corridor had been scheduled for Sunday under the terms of the truce that took effect on Jan. 19.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli forces had shot dead three civilians in Gaza City north of the Netzarim Corridor on Sunday. The military said it had fired “warning shots” and hit Palestinians who had approached troops.
Trump sparked global outrage by suggesting on Tuesday last week that the US should take control of the Gaza Strip and clear out its inhabitants.
Upon his return to Israel from the US, Netanyahu reiterated his support for the proposal during a Cabinet meeting.
“President Trump came with a completely different, much better vision for Israel — a revolutionary, creative approach that we are currently discussing,” the Israeli prime minister said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday became the latest world leaders to denounce Trump’s plan.
“No one has the power to remove the people of Gaza from their eternal homeland,” Erdogan told journalists at Istanbul airport before flying to Malaysia.
Scholz, speaking during a pre-election debate, described Trump’s plan as “a scandal.”
“The relocation of a population is unacceptable and against international law,” he said.
