Israel should build up

Erdogan: US plans for Gaza should not be taken seriously

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is of the opinion that Trump's plans for the Gaza Strip should not be taken seriously.(Bild: APA/AFP/Pablo PORCIUNCULA)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejects the US plans to resettle Palestinians. Instead, Israel should rebuild the destroyed coastal area, the politician said. "No one has the power to inflict a second Nakba on the Palestinian people and never will."

The term Nakba (catastrophe) refers to the flight and expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians during the first Middle East war in 1948, when the Israeli state was founded. Expulsion of the more than two million people in the Gaza Strip would violate international law, said Erdogan. Instead of looking for a new home for the people of Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should pay for the damage he caused during the military operation against Hamas.

"From our point of view, the proposals aimed at expelling the Palestinians from the land where they have lived for thousands of years should not be taken seriously," Erdogan said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan(Bild: APA/AFP/Pablo PORCIUNCULA)

Residents of the Gaza Strip(Bild: APA/AFP/Eyad BABA)

Trump's plans have already been widely criticized internationally. As reported, the US President wants to take over the Gaza Strip and resettle the people for the period of reconstruction. However, there is no right of return. The Republican said that the region should become a "Middle East rivalry". He had recently added that parts of the destroyed coastal strip could also be rebuilt by other states in the Middle East.

"We will bring it down, just as we brought down the plans before it," commented Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya on Monday. Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu, on the other hand, finds Trump's initiative "revolutionary". "President Trump came with a completely different, much better vision for Israel - a revolutionary, creative approach that we are currently discussing," he said on Sunday (see video above).