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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

Lebanese President Says Security Deal with Israel Must Come Before Netanyahu Meeting

Israeli troops maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 04 May 2026, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. (EPA)
Israeli troops maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 04 May 2026, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. (EPA)
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Lebanese President Says Security Deal with Israel Must Come Before Netanyahu Meeting

Israeli troops maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 04 May 2026, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. (EPA)
Israeli troops maneuver on the Lebanese side of the border, as seen from the Upper Galilee in northern Israel, 04 May 2026, amid a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. (EPA)

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Monday said a security deal and an end to Israeli attacks were needed before any meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sought by Washington. 

Aoun's office said in a statement that the president "reiterated his view that the timing is not appropriate now for a meeting" with Netanyahu. 

The statement quoted Aoun as saying: "We must first reach a security agreement and stop the Israeli attacks on us before we raise the issue of a meeting between us." 

Israeli and Lebanese representatives last month met twice in Washington -- the first such meetings in decades, which came after Iran-backed Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on March 2, sparking heavy Israeli strikes and a ground invasion. 

After the first talks, US President Donald Trump announced a 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon that began on April 17, and a three-week extension after the second round. 

The two countries are preparing for direct negotiations. 

The statement from Aoun's office said a third round of "preparatory talks" were expected "in the coming days". 

At the second meeting later in April, Trump said he expected Aoun and Netanyahu to meet jointly with him at the White House "over the next couple of weeks". 

Last week, the US embassy in Beirut urged such a meeting, saying that "Lebanon stands at a crossroads. Its people have a historic opportunity to reclaim their country and shape their future," adding that "the time for hesitation is over". 

A direct meeting between Aoun and Netanyahu, "facilitated by President Trump, would give Lebanon the chance to secure concrete guarantees" including on sovereignty, the embassy added, at a time when Israeli troops are still operating in south Lebanon. 

The planned negotiations have caused a rift in Lebanon, with Hezbollah rejecting direct negotiations as well as Beirut's previous commitment to disarm it. 

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem earlier Monday criticized direct talks, saying they put Lebanon "under tutelage", and instead called for diplomacy that leads to an end to the war. 

"Direct negotiations are a gratuitous concession, without results," Qassem said. 

Aoun said "there is no turning back from the path of negotiations, because we have no other option", according to the statement from his office, reiterating that the process sought to achieve an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. 

Israeli strikes have killed almost 2,700 people in Lebanon, including dozens since the ceasefire. 

On the ground, Hezbollah said its fighters clashed with Israeli soldiers in south Lebanon near the border where its troops are still operating, despite the ceasefire. 

Hezbollah in a statement said that after Israeli troops attempted to advance near the town of Deir Seryan -- which is inside the Israeli-declared "yellow line" where Lebanese residents have been told not to return -- its fighters "opened fire on the enemy force and engaged in heavy clashes with them". 

The Israeli military confirmed there were clashes with Hezbollah fighters in south Lebanon. 

"Earlier today, two soldiers were moderately injured as a result of a close-quarters encounter with Hezbollah terrorists in southern Lebanon," the military said in a statement. 

"The soldiers were evacuated to receive medical treatment at a hospital." 

Arab World

Drone Attacks Target Khartoum Airport

Smoke rises from inside Khartoum Airport during previous clashes between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese army (file photo – Reuters)
Smoke rises from inside Khartoum Airport during previous clashes between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese army (file photo – Reuters)
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Drone Attacks Target Khartoum Airport

Smoke rises from inside Khartoum Airport during previous clashes between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese army (file photo – Reuters)
Smoke rises from inside Khartoum Airport during previous clashes between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese army (file photo – Reuters)

Khartoum Airport came under drone attack on Monday, with Sudanese army air defenses intercepting the aircraft, a military source told AFP

The incident follows attacks by the Rapid Support Forces on the Sudanese capital two days earlier that left five people dead.

Smoke rises from inside Khartoum Airport during previous clashes between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese army (file photo – Reuters)

The military source said: “Our air defenses successfully shot down drones targeting the eastern perimeter of Khartoum Airport.”

Witnesses reported hearing explosions and seeing plumes of smoke rising from the Safa neighborhood, located east of the airport.

Arab World

‘Freshly Dug Graves’ as Hezbollah Pays Steep Price in Battle to Reverse its Fortunes

FILE PHOTO: Mourners carry coffins during the funeral of four Hezbollah fighters and two civilians, amid a temporary ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, in the village of Maaroub, southern Lebanon, April 26, 2026. REUTERS/Marko Djurica/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Mourners carry coffins during the funeral of four Hezbollah fighters and two civilians, amid a temporary ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, in the village of Maaroub, southern Lebanon, April 26, 2026. REUTERS/Marko Djurica/File Photo
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‘Freshly Dug Graves’ as Hezbollah Pays Steep Price in Battle to Reverse its Fortunes

FILE PHOTO: Mourners carry coffins during the funeral of four Hezbollah fighters and two civilians, amid a temporary ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, in the village of Maaroub, southern Lebanon, April 26, 2026. REUTERS/Marko Djurica/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Mourners carry coffins during the funeral of four Hezbollah fighters and two civilians, amid a temporary ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, in the village of Maaroub, southern Lebanon, April 26, 2026. REUTERS/Marko Djurica/File Photo

Hezbollah has paid a heavy price for going to war with Israel on March 2: Israel has occupied a chunk of southern Lebanon, displaced hundreds of thousands of its Shiite constituents and killed as many as several thousand of its fighters, according to previously unreported casualty estimates from within the group.

The move has brought severe political consequences, too. In Beirut, opposition has hardened to its status as an armed group, which domestic rivals see as exposing Lebanon to repeated wars with Israel.

In April, Lebanon's government held face-to-face talks with Israel for the first time in decades, a decision Hezbollah firmly opposed. However, more than a dozen Hezbollah officials told Reuters they see a chance to reverse deteriorating fortunes by aligning with Tehran in its war with Israel and the United States.

The group, founded by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps in 1982, opened fire two days into the conflict, which began with US and Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.

The group's calculations are based on the assessment that its participation would force Lebanon onto the agenda of US-Iranian negotiations, and that Iranian pressure can secure a more robust ceasefire than one that took effect in November 2024 following a conflict sparked by the war in Gaza, the officials said.

Hezbollah was mauled in the last war, which killed its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, along with some 5,000 fighters, and weakened its long-dominant hold over the Lebanese state.

Rearmed with Iranian help, it has used new tactics and drones, surprising many with its capabilities after a fragile 15-month truce during which Hezbollah held fire, even as Israel continued to kill its members.

Hezbollah lawmaker Ibrahim al-Moussawi denied the group was acting on Iran's behalf when it resumed hostilities, as alleged by opponents. He told Reuters Hezbollah saw a window to "break this vicious cycle ... where the Israelis can target, assassinate, bombard, kill, without any revenge."

He acknowledged losses and damage in southern ⁠Lebanon but said "you don't ⁠go into making calculations of how many are going to be killed" when "pride and sovereignty and independence" are at stake.

Hezbollah’s media office said the figure of several thousand fighters killed in the present war was false.

FILE PHOTO: A family stand next to a fire outside their tent at a temporary encampment for displaced people, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, in Beirut, Lebanon, March 30, 2026. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi/File Photo

While a US-mediated ceasefire that took effect on April 16 has led to a significant reduction in hostilities, Israel and Hezbollah have continued to trade blows in the south, where Israel maintains troops in a self-declared "buffer zone".

Yezid Sayigh, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut, said Hezbollah had "shown more resilience than many thought possible, but that was not a strategic gain in itself".

"The only thing that will contain Israel is a comprehensive US-Iran deal," he said. "Without a deal, there's going to be a lot of pain for everyone. At best, a hurting stalemate."

More than 2,600 people have been killed since March 2, around a fifth of them women, children and medics, Lebanon's health ministry has reported. Its toll does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Three sources, two of them Hezbollah officials, said the ministry's figures do not include many of the group's casualties. They said several thousand Hezbollah fighters have been killed, though the group does not have the ⁠full picture yet.

In a statement to Reuters, Hezbollah’s media office denied the figures cited by the sources, and that the numbers published by Lebanon’s health ministry included its members killed in Israeli strikes.

One source, a Hezbollah commander, said scores of fighters had gone to the frontline towns of Bint Jbeil and Khiyam intending to fight to the death. Their bodies have yet to be recovered.

In the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut, more than two dozen freshly dug graves were quickly filled with fighters' bodies in the days after the ceasefire took hold. Simple marble tombstones identify some as commanders, others as fighters.

In one southern village alone, Yater, the council recorded the deaths of 34 Hezbollah fighters.

Lebanon's Shiite community has borne the brunt of Israel's attacks, forced to flee into Christian, Druze and other areas, where many blame Hezbollah for starting the war.

Smoke rises from the site of Israeli airstrikes that targeted the southern Lebanese village of Habbouch on May 1, 2026. (Photo by Abbas FAKIH / AFP)

Israel has been entrenching its hold over a security zone stretching as far as 10 km (6 miles) into Lebanon and demolishing villages, saying it aims to shield northern Israel from attacks by Hezbollah militants embedded in civilian areas.

An Israeli government official said Hezbollah had abrogated the November 2024 ceasefire by firing on Israeli citizens on March 2. The threat to northern Israel would be eradicated, the official said, adding thousands of Hezbollah militants had been killed, and Israel was steadily destroying the group's infrastructure.

The Israeli military says Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel since March 2. Israel has announced 17 soldiers killed in southern Lebanon, along with two civilians in northern Israel.

Citing ongoing Israeli strikes, Hezbollah has called the April ceasefire meaningless and continued to attack.

A diplomat who has contact with Hezbollah described its decision to enter the war as a big gamble and a survival strategy, saying it felt it needed to be part of the ⁠problem so it could be part of an eventual regional ⁠solution.

It has yet to be seen if the gamble will pay off.

Tehran has demanded that Israel's campaign against Hezbollah be included in any deal on the wider war. But US President Donald Trump said last month that any deal Washington reaches with Tehran "is in no way subject to Lebanon".

A spokesperson for Pakistan's Foreign Ministry, Tahir Andrabi, referred Reuters to an April 16 statement in which he said peace in Lebanon was essential to the talks it is mediating between the US and Iran.

A Western official said they saw a possibility the US and Iran might eventually reach a settlement that does not address the war in Lebanon.

Asked about this, the US State Department, Iran's mission to the United Nations in Geneva and Lebanon's government did not immediately comment.

Hezbollah's Moussawi said a ceasefire in Lebanon continues to be a top priority for Iran, adding Tehran shares Lebanon's objectives, including that Israel halt attacks and withdraw from Lebanon. Hezbollah has "full trust in Iran - that the Iranians will not sell their own friends", he said.

The State Department referred Reuters to an April 27 interview Secretary of State Marco Rubio did with Fox News, in which he said Israel had a right to defend itself against Hezbollah's attacks, and that he didn't think Israel wanted to maintain its buffer zone in Lebanon indefinitely.

The United States has urged Israel "to make sure their responses are proportional and targeted," he said.

When the April 16 ceasefire was announced, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hezbollah's disarmament would be a fundamental demand in peace talks with Lebanon.

Hezbollah has ruled out disarmament, saying the matter of its weapons is a topic for a national dialogue. Any move by Lebanon to disarm the group by force would risk igniting conflict in a country shattered by civil war from 1975 to 1990.

Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam have sought Hezbollah's peaceful disarmament since last year. On March 2, the government banned the group's military activities.

Hezbollah has demanded the government cancel that decision and end its direct talks with Israel.

Lebanese officials have told Reuters they believe direct talks with Israel under the auspices of the US are the best way to secure a lasting ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli troops, as only Washington has enough leverage with Israel to achieve those aims.