Trump’s Gaza plan ‘profoundly illegal’, experts say

US President says he is willing to send American troops into Palestinian enclave

US President Donald Trump, left, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. Bloomberg

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US President Donald Trump’s proposal to displace Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and “take over” the enclave breaches several international laws, legal experts warn.

Mr Trump on Tuesday made stunning claims, including that more than 1.7 million Palestinians in Gaza should be moved to countries including Jordan and Egypt, and that the US would assume control of the Gaza Strip.

“The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a good job with it, too,” Mr Trump said. “We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site.”

He described the coastal enclave as having the development potential to be turned into the “Riviera of the Middle East” and said he was prepared to send US troops there.

The National assesses US President Donald Trump's statement on taking control of Gaza

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“It is profoundly illegal under international law,” said Michael Lynk, a professor emeritus of law at Western University in Ontario and the former UN special rapporteur for the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Mr Lynk claimed that Mr Trump’s proposal, if carried out forcibly, would amount to ethnic cleansing. That would be a breach of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, to which the US and Israel are signatories, and the 1998 Rome Statute, which created the International Criminal Court.

“The International Criminal Court has ruled that the Rome Statute applies to the occupied Palestinian territory, which includes Gaza, and therefore both Israeli leaders and American leaders, if they carry this out, would be criminally liable for forced displacement, even though neither country has signed their own statute,” he told The National.

He said the President's plan would also be a breach of international diplomacy. A June 2024 UN Security Council resolution, which called for a ceasefire to end the fighting in Gaza and was endorsed by the US, stipulated that “any attempt at demographic or territorial change in the Gaza Strip, including any actions that reduce the territory of Gaza”, would be rejected.

Mr Trump, who appears to thrive on breaking political norms and thinking outside the box, has complained that previous efforts to defuse the conflict have failed and that something radically new is required. He has long viewed himself as a master negotiator and titled his 1987 book The Art of the Deal.

His comments on Tuesday left analysts divided, with some choosing to believe that he was simply trying to build capital for a future negotiation, while others were less certain.

“It seems to me that this is part of an elaborate ruse to try and pressure Hamas into accepting that it will not have a monopoly on control and power in Gaza, that it will not have the sole dominion over Gaza's future and fate,” said Ahmed Alkhatib, a senior resident fellow at the Atlantic Council, who is originally from Gaza.

But others believe that is giving the President too much credit. “The Middle East is no place for political amateurs, and this is what we're seeing,” said Mr Lynk.

Aaron David Miller, a former long-time Middle East analyst at the State Department, told The National: "I think this is an unserious and dangerous proposal from an unserious man."