International
Trump says that the US will control Gaza and Hamas responds that it will not allow it
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the United States “will take control” of the Gaza Strip in the long term and rebuild it, turning it into the new “Middle East River”, after permanently resettling the Palestinians in other countries.
“I don’t want to be funny or smart, but the Middle East Riviera… This could be so magnificent,” Trump said at a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
After this announcement, the former Israeli Minister of National Security, the settler and anti-Arab Itamar Ben Gvir, urged Netanyahu to announce “the adoption of the plan as soon as possible” to expel the Palestinians from Gaza.
Hamas, for its part, has said that it will not allow the plans announced by Trump to be fulfilled and described his proposal as “racist.”
“The (Palestinian) people who have stood firm for 15 months (of war) against the most powerful military machine and the most criminal Army, and who thwarted the attempt to displace it, will remain attached to their land and will not accept that plan no matter the cost,” Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif al Qanou said in a statement.
“The American racist position is consistent with the position of the Israeli extreme right to displace our people and liquidate their cause,” continued Qanou, who called on the international community to reject Trump’s statements and support the Palestinians’ right to self-determination in the face of Israeli occupation.
China has expressed its opposition to the position of the US president and has reiterated the need to seek a path towards a “two-state solution” while the Kremlin has preferred to stay on the sidelines.
“We oppose the forced displacement of the residents of the Gaza Strip. China hopes that all parties will accept the ceasefire and that a two-state political solution will be returned,” Foreign Affairs spokesman Lin Jian said at a press conference.
The Chinese spokesman added in the daily appearance, the first after a week suspended by the Lunar New Year holidays, that the parties involved must “push the Palestinian issue back towards the right path.”
“That involves an arrangement based on the ‘two-state solution’ that aims at lasting peace in the Middle East,” he warned.
On the other hand, Russia, with which the United States maintains a tense relationship, refrained from criticizing the proposal of the US president, although he clarified that they “have heard” it and that they have also followed the statements in this regard from Egypt or Jordan, countries that also oppose the intentions of the tycoon.
For his part, the president of the Palestinian National Authority (ANP), Mahmud Abbas, rejected the proposal and recalled that the enclave is an “integral part” of the Palestinian State.
“We will not allow the rights of our people, for which we have been fighting for decades and for whom we have made great sacrifices, to be violated,” Abbas said in a message collected by the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa.
In his message, Abbas said that the rights of the Palestinians are not negotiable, and that no one can make decisions about the future of the Palestinians except themselves.
The president, who also chairs the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), also thanked Saudi Arabia for its rejection of the forced expulsion of Gazans, and asked the UN to take “urgent” measures to protect international resolutions, which recognize the right to return of Palestinians displaced by Israel.
Huséin al Sheij, the general secretary of the PLO and Abbas’s right-hand man, also expressed his rejection of Trump’s plan and said that the two-state solution, one Israeli and one Palestinian, is the only guarantee of peace in the Middle East.
“Here we were born, here we live and here we will die,” the official said in a message.
Trump did not rule out deploying US troops to support the reconstruction of Gaza and assured that the US will do “whatever it takes” to complete that project.
This is the first time that Trump, who campaigned with the promise of taking the US out of the wars in the Middle East, speaks of a direct long-term involvement in Gaza and also the first time he suggests that the Palestinians should be permanently resettled in other countries.
Specifically, at the press conference, a journalist asked him what this US occupation would consist of and if it would be prolonged, to which Trump responded in the affirmative and said that he contemplates a “long-term ownership position” on the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinians claim the Gaza Strip as part of a future state along with the West Bank and East Jerusalem, so the displacement of the two million people living in the enclave and their real estate development by the US would put an end to the concept of the Palestinian State as it has been conceived so far.
Asked about it, Trump avoided expressing support for the “two-state solution”, which has been the traditional US policy on the conflict for decades, and reiterated his idea that the people of Gaza be resettled in other countries.
Since his return to power on January 20, Trump has reiterated this proposal on several occasions and insisted that Jordan and Egypt should accept more Palestinian refugees from Gaza, an idea flatly rejected by those two countries, as well as by the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League.
For the first time, in statements to the press at the beginning of his meeting with Netanyahu in the Oval Office, Trump suggested that this resettlement should be “permanent” and tried to frame it as a humanitarian measure, stating that it was impossible to believe that someone would want to remain in a territory devastated by war, which he described as a “demolition zone”.
During the meeting, in addition to the future of Gaza, both leaders talked about the fragile ceasefire with Hamas, the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia and the growing tension with Iran.
The visit was an international endorsement for Netanyahu, who left Israel for the first time since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against him in November, a decision that Washington has strongly condemned and whose jurisdiction it does not recognize.
Netanyahu took from Trump not only comments that satisfy the Israeli far-right, but also concrete actions in support of Israel.
Before meeting with Netanyahu, Trump signed an executive order to continue suspending funds to the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) and end US participation in the United Nations Human Rights Council, which Netanyahu accuses of being partial against Israel.
International
Armed forces target illegal mines in Northern Ecuador with bombing raids
Ecuador’s Armed Forces carried out an operation on Monday — including airstrikes — against illegal mining in the town of Buenos Aires, in the country’s north, Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo reported.
The mountainous, gold-rich area has been a hotspot for illegal mining since 2017, located in the Andean province of Imbabura.
In 2019, former president Lenín Moreno deployed around 2,400 soldiers to the region in an attempt to curb the illegal activity. “The operation began with mortar fire, followed by gunfire and bombing runs by Supertucano aircraft,” Loffredo said in a video released by the Defense Ministry.
He added that the operation would continue on Tuesday with patrols across the area to locate possible members of “irregular armed groups that may have crossed from the Colombian border.”
The Armed Forces stated on X that the intervention focused on the “complete elimination of multiple illegal mining tunnels” in the areas known as Mina Nueva and Mina Vieja.
The operation coincided with the deployment of a military and police convoy into Imbabura, which has been the epicenter of protests against President Daniel Noboa since September 22, following his decision to scrap the diesel subsidy.
International
Caracas shuts embassy in Oslo without explanation following Machado’s Nobel win
Venezuela has announced the closure of its embassy in Norway, just days after opposition leader María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the Venezuelan diplomatic mission provided no explanation for its decision on Monday.
“It is regrettable,” a ministry spokesperson said. “Despite our differences on several issues, Norway wishes to keep the dialogue with Venezuela open and will continue to work in that direction.” The ministry also emphasized that the Nobel Committee operates entirely independently from the Norwegian government.
In its announcement, the Nobel Committee stated that Machado met the criteria established by Alfred Nobel, “embodying the hope for a different future, where the fundamental rights of Venezuelans are heard.”
International
Sheinbaum: Urgent to restore access to towns cut off by heavy rains
Thousands of military personnel and civilians in Mexico worked tirelessly on Tuesday to clear roads blocked by the torrential rains of recent days, which have left more than 300 communities cut off across central and eastern regions of the country. Authorities also launched mass fumigation efforts in several affected areas to prevent the spread of dengue fever.
The official death toll remains at 64, though dozens of people are still missing. President Claudia Sheinbaumacknowledged that the government does not yet know the full situation in many of the isolated villages, which range in population from 500 to 1,000 inhabitants.
“The reopening of roads is one of the greatest urgencies,” Sheinbaum said. “It’s essential to guarantee air bridges, food supplies, clean water, and a proper census of the isolated communities so we can determine the condition of every person living there.”
Private construction companies are also assisting the effort with heavy machinery and technical support to help reopen highways and reconnect rural areas.
Armed forces target illegal mines in Northern Ecuador with bombing raids
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