Trump wants US to buy, own Gaza

NEW YORK, Feb 10 (Reuters/AFP): US President Donald Trump said on Sunday he is committed to buying and owning Gaza, but could allow sections of the war-ravaged land to be rebuilt by other states in the Middle East.

"I'm committed to buying and owning Gaza. As far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it, other people may do it, through our auspices. But we're committed to owning it, taking it, and making sure that Hamas doesn't move back."

Trump made his remarks to reporters aboard Air Force One on his way to New Orleans to attend the National Football League Super Bowl championship.

"There's nothing to move back into. The place is a demolition site. The remainder will be demolished. Everything's demolished," he said.

Trump also said he was open to the possibility of allowing some Palestinian refugees into the United States, but would consider such requests on a case-by-case basis.

Ezzat El Rashq, a member of the Hamas political bureau, condemned Trump's latest remarks on buying and owning Gaza, the group said in a statement.

"Gaza is not a property to be sold and bought. It is an integral part of our occupied Palestinian land," and Palestinians will foil displacement plans, Rashq added.

'No-one has the power' to remove

Palestinians from Gaza: Erdogan

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Sunday no one had the power to remove Gazans from their war-devastated homeland, dismissing Donald Trump's plan to expel the Palestinians and let the US take control.

"No one has the power to remove the people of Gaza from their eternal homeland that has been around for thousands of years," he told a late-night news conference at Istanbul airport before flying to Malaysia.

"Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem belong to the Palestinians."

Trump's proposal to oust more than two million Palestinians living in Gaza and redevelop it prompted a global backlash that has enraged the Arab and Muslim world.

The US president announced his proposal on Tuesday at a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who hailed it as "the first good idea that I've heard" on what to do with the tiny war-torn territory.

But Erdogan appeared to dismiss it as worthless.

"The proposals on Gaza put forward by the new US administration under pressure from the Zionist leadership have nothing worth discussing from our point of view," he said.

Scholz labels Trump's

Gaza plan a 'scandal'

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday labelled as "a scandal" US President Donald Trump's plans for the war-ravaged Palestinian territory of Gaza.

Trump sparked global outrage by suggesting on Tuesday that Washington should take control of the Gaza Strip, clear out its inhabitants and turn it into "the Riviera of the Middle East".

Scholz, speaking in a pre-election TV debate, branded the plan "a scandal" and said "the relocation of a population is unacceptable and against international law".

His conservative election rival Friedrich Merz said "I share this assessment".

But Merz added that Trump's announcement is "part of a whole series of proposals coming from the American government".

Israeli forces kill three

in West Bank raid

The Palestinian health ministry reported that Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank shot dead three people on Sunday, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, while the military said it had "targeted terrorists" in a raid.

It later said military police had launched an investigation into the death of the pregnant woman.

Israeli forces launched an operation in the Nur Shams refugee camp, on the outskirts of Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, at dawn on Sunday, as part of an ongoing offensive in nearby camps, the military said.