•Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas
Palestinian president, Mahmud Abbas “strongly rejected” today his US counterpart Donald Trump’s proposal to “take over” and “own” the Gaza Strip.
“President Mahmud Abbas and the Palestinian leadership expressed their strong rejection of calls to seize the Gaza Strip and displace Palestinians outside their homeland,” Abbas’s office said in a statement, adding that “legitimate Palestinian rights are not negotiable”.
Reading the statement on Palestinian public television, Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina stressed that the Gaza Strip “is an integral part of the State of Palestine”.
The Palestine Liberation Organisation, an alliance of factions headed by Abbas, also condemned Trump’s proposal to relocate Gazans to Egypt or Jordan.
It rejected “all calls for the displacement of Palestinians from their homeland”, its secretary general, Hussein al-Sheikh, said.
