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Global Reaction to Trump’s Gaza Strip Takeover Plan

US President Donald J. Trump speaks during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 04 February 2025. (EPA)
US President Donald J. Trump speaks during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 04 February 2025. (EPA)
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Global Reaction to Trump’s Gaza Strip Takeover Plan

US President Donald J. Trump speaks during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 04 February 2025. (EPA)
US President Donald J. Trump speaks during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 04 February 2025. (EPA)

President Donald Trump said the United States would take over the Gaza Strip after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere. 

Here are some global reactions to the announcement. 

SAUDI ARABIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY 

"Saudi Arabia rejects any attempts to displace the Palestinians from their land. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has affirmed the kingdom's position in 'a clear and explicit manner' that does not allow for any interpretation under any circumstances." 

EGYPT'S FOREIGN MINISTER BADR ABDELATTY 

Abdelatty discussed with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa the importance of moving forward with recovery projects in Gaza without Palestinians leaving the Gaza Strip. 

PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD ABBAS AND THE PALESTINIAN LEADERSHIP 

Abbas said the Palestinians will not relinquish their land, rights, and sacred sites, and that the Gaza Strip is an integral part of the land of the State of Palestine, along with the West Bank and East Jerusalem. 

SENIOR HAMAS OFFICIAL SAMI ABU ZUHRI 

"Our people in the Gaza Strip will not allow these plans to pass, and what is required is to end the (Israeli) occupation and aggression against our people, not to expel them from their land." 

KREMLIN SPOKESMAN DMITRY PESKOV 

Russia believes a settlement in the Middle East is only possible on the basis of a two-state solution. 

CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY 

"China hopes all parties will take ceasefire and post-conflict governance as an opportunity to bring the Palestinian issue back on the right track of political settlement based on the two-state solution." 

TURKISH FOREIGN MINISTER HAKAN FIDAN 

US President Donald Trump's comments on a plan to take over Gaza are "unacceptable". Any plans leaving Palestinians "out of the equation" would lead to more conflict. 

PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANISATION SECRETARY GENERAL HUSSEIN AL-SHEIKH 

"The Palestinian leadership affirms its firm position that the two-state solution, in accordance with international legitimacy and international law, is the guarantee of security, stability and peace." 

ISLAMIC JIHAD 

"Trump's positions and plans are a dangerous escalation that threaten Arab and regional national security, especially in Egypt and Jordan, which the US administration wants to put in confrontation with the Palestinian people and their rights." 

UK ENVIRONMENT MINISTER STEVE REED 

"The UK government's position ... is that Palestinian civilians must be able to return to their homes and rebuild their lives. For those people, the last ...months have been a living nightmare, and it's important they're able to go home after this to start to rebuild. 

"They'll need a lot of support from the international community to do that, but it's the only way we're going to get to the long-term solution for all of this, and a long-term peace, which is a two-state solution." 

AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER ANTHONY ALBANESE 

"Australia's position is the same as it was this morning, as it was last year. The Australian government supports on a bipartisan basis a two-state solution." 

DEMOCRATIC AND PALESTINIAN-AMERICAN US REPRESENTATIVE RASHIDA TLAIB 

"Palestinians aren't going anywhere. This president can only spew this fanatical (expletive) because of bipartisan support in Congress for funding genocide and ethnic cleansing. It's time for my two-state solution colleagues to speak up." 

US MUSLIM ADVOCACY GROUP COUNCIL ON AMERICAN ISLAMIC RELATIONS 

"Gaza belongs to the Palestinian people, not the United States, and President Trump's call to expel Palestinians from their land is an absolute non-starter." 

"If the Palestinian people were ever somehow forcibly expelled from Gaza, this crime against humanity would spark widespread conflict, put the final nail in the coffin of international law, and destroy what remains of our nation's international image and standing." 

PAUL O'BRIEN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL USA 

"Removing all Palestinians from Gaza is 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." 

DEMOCRATIC US SENATOR CHRIS MURPHY 

"He's totally lost it...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." 

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Arab World

UN Probe: Israel's 'Deliberate Targeting' of Children Part of Ongoing Gaza 'Genocide'

Mourners carry the body of Palestinian Raghad Hassan Ashour, 16, during her funeral at Al-Shifa Hospital after she was killed in an Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, Monday June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Mourners carry the body of Palestinian Raghad Hassan Ashour, 16, during her funeral at Al-Shifa Hospital after she was killed in an Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, Monday June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
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UN Probe: Israel's 'Deliberate Targeting' of Children Part of Ongoing Gaza 'Genocide'

Mourners carry the body of Palestinian Raghad Hassan Ashour, 16, during her funeral at Al-Shifa Hospital after she was killed in an Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, Monday June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Mourners carry the body of Palestinian Raghad Hassan Ashour, 16, during her funeral at Al-Shifa Hospital after she was killed in an Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, Monday June 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

Israel is deliberately targeting Palestinian children in what has become a key factor in an ongoing "genocide" in Gaza, United Nations investigators charged on Tuesday, in a report slammed by Israel.

According to AFP, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry said it had found evidence that "Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by Israeli security forces.”

This, it said, was a key factor in establishing "the genocidal intent of the Israeli authorities and security forces to destroy the larger Palestinian group in Gaza.”

The three-member investigative team, which does not speak for the UN itself, first determined in a report last September that Israel had committed "genocide" in the war in Gaza -- a finding Israel flatly rejected.

In Tuesday's follow-up report, they said the intense scale and systematic nature of Israeli military operations had continued, resulting in the "unprecedented" death, injury and trauma of Palestinian children.

There were "reasonable grounds" to conclude that Israel's authorities and security forces "have continued to commit the crime of genocide" in Gaza, they said.

Israel, which has long been harshly critical of the commission, slammed the report as "defamatory" and a "libelous sham.”

It accused the investigators of ignoring "the brutal tactics of Hamas, which ruthlessly attacks Israeli children and uses Palestinian children as human shields.”

The commission, which was established by the UN Human Rights Council in 2021, examined for its latest report crimes affecting Palestinian children, and how living conditions imposed by Israel in Gaza were "resulting in preventable mortality of children.”

"Israeli authorities and security forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Gaza Strip, and war crimes in the West Bank," the team said in a statement.

The commission said that severe physical and mental injuries, mass trauma, orphanhood, separation, disability, repeated displacements, starvation, and the collapse of education and healthcare had "erased childhood" in Gaza and would continue to affect the territory's children throughout their lives.

"By targeting children, Israel is attacking the very capacity of the Palestinian people to exist and to determine their future," said Indian judge Srinivasan Muralidhar, who chairs the inquiry.

"Even after the October 2025 ceasefire, children continue to be killed and seriously injured."

The report comes days after the UN children's agency UNICEF said at least 265 children had been killed and hundreds more wounded in Gaza since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took effect.

UNICEF said children had been shot, bombed and struck by quadcopters, killed in tents, in schools and while playing football or fishing.

The Hamas October 7, 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel's retaliatory response in Gaza has killed more than 72,800 people, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

The UN inquiry said that during the first two years of the war at least 20,179 children were killed and 44,143 injured "as a direct result of the hostilities in Gaza.”

The killing and maiming of Palestinian children "was part of a strategy to destroy the biological continuity and future existence of the Palestinian group in Gaza", it said.

By targeting children, the report said, "Israel is eroding the foundational structure of Palestinian society, weakening the demographic vitality.”

Israel was responsible for causing a "severe orphan crisis,” while wounded youngsters "face a lifetime of disability" -- now "a defining demographic reality" among Gaza's children, it said.

The siege of Gaza "directly undermined reproductive and newborn health,” while the collapse of public health programs "eroded the conditions necessary for a healthy next generation.”

The report listed Israeli divisions, brigades and units that may be responsible for killing children, in specific incidents in Gaza and the West Bank.

Besides Gaza, the commission also documented a sharp increase in violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian children in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.

The commission urged all UN member states, including Israel, to ensure accountability for crimes committed.

Arab World

Russian Delegation, Libya’s GNA Discuss Investment Opportunities

The visit aimed to review the economic and investment potential offered by the free zone and the opportunities available for cooperation and partnership. Photo: Misurata Free Zone
The visit aimed to review the economic and investment potential offered by the free zone and the opportunities available for cooperation and partnership. Photo: Misurata Free Zone
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Russian Delegation, Libya’s GNA Discuss Investment Opportunities

The visit aimed to review the economic and investment potential offered by the free zone and the opportunities available for cooperation and partnership. Photo: Misurata Free Zone
The visit aimed to review the economic and investment potential offered by the free zone and the opportunities available for cooperation and partnership. Photo: Misurata Free Zone

Libyan officials have discussed with a high-ranking Russian economic delegation mechanisms to strengthen investment and trade cooperation, as well as the reactivation of the Libyan-Russian joint committee.

Chairman of the Management Committee of the Misurata Free Zone (MFZ) in Libya Mohsen Al-Suqutri met on Monday with Russia’s Ambassador to Libya, Aydar Aganin, in the presence of Libya’s ambassador to Moscow, Emhemed Almaghrawi.

The visit aimed to review the economic and investment potential offered by the free zone and the opportunities available for cooperation and partnership.

The Russian delegation included several businessmen, as well as heads and representatives of companies and institutions active in industrial, commercial, investment, and scientific research sectors.

The Russian ambassador praised the strategic geographic location of the Misurata Free Zone, considering it an important hub connecting regional and international markets, and highlighting its attractiveness for investment in light and heavy industries and other sectors.

Both sides discussed opportunities for economic and investment cooperation and the possibility of establishing partnerships and projects that would contribute to boosting economic development and expanding areas of collaboration between the two countries.

The Minister of Transport and financial adviser to the prime minister in the Government of National Unity (GNA), Mohamed Al-Shahoubi, met with the Russian economic delegation in Tripoli.

The meeting was attended by several ministry officials, the Libyan and Russian ambassadors, as well as representatives from the ministry of foreign affairs and international cooperation.

The meeting addressed several issues of mutual interest, particularly in the sectors of transportation, infrastructure, and logistics services. It also explored opportunities for economic and investment cooperation that would serve shared interests and strengthen the partnership between the two countries.

The two sides also discussed mechanisms for reviving the Libyan-Russian joint committee, in a way that would help advance cooperation and activate agreements and memoranda of understanding previously signed between Libya and Russia.

The conferees stressed the importance of continued coordination, consultation, and exchange of expertise in support of development efforts, and to enhance the transport sector and economic relations between the two states.

Arab World

Sudanese Army Welcomes RSF Defectors

Sudanese Army commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan receives Major General Al-Nour Qubba, who defected from the Rapid Support Forces. (Sovereignty Council)
Sudanese Army commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan receives Major General Al-Nour Qubba, who defected from the Rapid Support Forces. (Sovereignty Council)
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Sudanese Army Welcomes RSF Defectors

Sudanese Army commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan receives Major General Al-Nour Qubba, who defected from the Rapid Support Forces. (Sovereignty Council)
Sudanese Army commander Abdel Fattah al-Burhan receives Major General Al-Nour Qubba, who defected from the Rapid Support Forces. (Sovereignty Council)

Sudan’s army is increasingly absorbing defectors from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), betting that growing divisions within the paramilitary group can help consolidate military gains in a civil war that has become one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

The latest sign of that strategy came last month when authorities in Khartoum granted a military rank to Ali Rizqallah, a former RSF commander who defected alongside several other senior figures. The army-backed government welcomed the move as evidence of widening cracks within the RSF.

The conflict erupted on April 15, 2023, after a power struggle between the army and RSF spiraled into open warfare. Since then, the war is believed to have killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced millions, and fueled famine and disease across large parts of the country.

Some of the worst violence has unfolded in Darfur, an RSF stronghold where the force has been accused of committing atrocities. Alleged abuses during the group’s assault on al-Fashir last October were documented in a Reuters investigation.

Halima, a resident of Darfur now living in the town of Tawila, said she was forced to flee repeatedly as RSF fighters raided villages surrounding al-Fashir. She recounted that she witnessed women being raped and was herself whipped by RSF personnel.

Sudanese refugees from Darfur walk amidst a sandstorm at the Touloum refugee camp, amid ongoing conflict in their country, on the outskirts of the town of Iriba in Wadi Fira province, eastern Chad, November 30, 2025. (Reuters)

“My arm is covered in scars all the way down to here,” she said, pointing toward her leg as she described the marks left on her body.

Anger toward the RSF is also widespread in neighboring Kordofan. A merchant in the town of Al-Nuhud revealed that he plans to file a lawsuit over the looting of warehouses and food stores.

Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, he blamed the RSF for the losses. But Mohamed Salah al-Din, a member of the executive council of the Emergency Lawyers group, said such individual cases are unlikely to gain broad traction amid the turmoil of war.

“This issue cannot be addressed piecemeal,” he stated. “It requires transitional justice.”

His comments contrast with efforts already underway to prosecute alleged collaborators. Emergency Lawyers said it has documented 243 cases referred to the courts involving accusations ranging from supplying intelligence to the RSF to cooking for its fighters.

The army is also seeking to exploit tribal tensions within the RSF’s support base. Several of the group’s senior commanders come from the Arab Rizeigat tribe, where rival clans have become increasingly divided, particularly after an RSF raid earlier this year on the hometown of Musa Hilal, a powerful tribal leader aligned with the military.

Hilal belongs to the Mahamid clan, while critics accuse the RSF of operating through a tribal and ethnic hierarchy that disproportionately benefits the family of its commander, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti.

“The RSF has become the preserve of a specific group and a single family,” critics said. “The project that builds a state must be a Sudanese national project, not one based on tribal loyalties.”

The Sudanese military is hoping those divisions will trigger further defections, replicating the success it achieved in Al Jazirah State, where the 2024 defection of militia commander Abu Aqla Keikal helped shift momentum decisively in the army’s favor.