ISTANBUL —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 remove 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. “Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem belong to the Palestinians.”
Meanwhile, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday praised a proposal from President Donald Trump for US control of Gaza and the displacement of its population as “revolutionary”, striking a triumphant tone in a statement to his cabinet following his return to Israel from Washington.
Trump set out a plan earlier this week to move the Gazans out of the territory to other countries in the region, while the United States would take charge of redeveloping it, sparking a diplomatic backlash.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, Palestinians were on Sunday able to cross the Netzarim Corridor, a strategic zone cutting the narrow territory in two, after Israeli troops were said to have withdrawn.
“Israeli forces have dismantled their positions… and completely withdrawn their tanks from the Netzarim Corridor on Salaheddin Road, allowing vehicles to pass freely in both directions,” said an official from the Hamas-run interior ministry.
AFP journalists saw no troops in the area, as cars, buses, pickup trucks and donkey carts travelled north and south along the road.
Gaza resident Mahmoud al-Sarhi said “arriving at the Netzarim Corridor meant death until this morning”.
This is “the first time I saw our destroyed house”, he told AFP of his home in the nearby Zeitun area.
“The entire area is in ruins. I cannot live here.”
A senior Hamas official said the Israeli withdrawal from Netzarim had been scheduled for Sunday under the terms of the truce that took effect on January 19.
