Erdogan Rejects Trump's Plan to Expel Palestinians from Gaza

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

"No one has the power to remove the people of Gaza from their eternal homeland that has existed for thousands of years," Erdogan said in a late-night news conference at Istanbul airport before departing for Malaysia. "Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem belong to the Palestinians."

Trump's controversial proposal to forcibly relocate over two million Palestinians from Gaza and place it under U.S. control drew sharp condemnation across the Arab and Muslim world. The plan was unveiled during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who praised it as a "good idea" for resolving the situation in Gaza.

However, Erdogan dismissed the plan, calling it "worthless" and criticizing it as a product of pressure from Zionist leadership. "The proposals on Gaza put forward by the new U.S. administration have nothing worth discussing from our point of view," he said.

Earlier in the day, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, speaking on Palestinian television, also condemned the idea, calling the displacement of Palestinians "unacceptable" and describing Trump's plan as "historically ignorant."

Trump had suggested that the U.S. would redevelop Gaza by clearing unexploded bombs and rubble and launching economic recovery efforts, but he did not outline how the Palestinians would be removed. "The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it, too. We'll own it," he had said.