Foreign ministers from Muslim nations on Saturday rejected calls by President Trump to empty the Gaza Strip of its Palestinian population and instead backed a plan for an administrative committee of Palestinians to govern the territory to allow reconstruction to go ahead. The AP reports that the foreign ministers gathered in the Saudi city of Jeddah for a special session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to address the situation in Gaza, at a time when the seven-week-old ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has been thrown into doubt.
In a statement put out Saturday, the gathering threw its support behind a plan to rebuild Gaza put forward by Egypt and backed by Arab states, including Saudi Arabia and Jordan, aimed at countering Trump's call. The OIC groups 57 nations with largely Muslim populations. Without specifically mentioning Trump, the ministers said they rejected "plans aimed at displacing the Palestinian people individually or collectively…as ethnic cleansing, a grave violation of international law and a crime against humanity." They also condemned "policies of starvation" that they said aim to push Palestinians to leave.
Trump has called for Gaza's population to be resettled elsewhere permanently so that the US can take over the territory and develop it for others. Palestinians have rejected calls to leave. The ministers at the OIC gathering supported an Egyptian-backed proposal that an administrative committee replace Hamas in governing Gaza. The committee would work "under the umbrella" of the Palestinian Authority, based in the West Bank. Israel has rejected the PA having any role in the Gaza Strip, but it has not put forward an alternative for post-war rule in the territory.
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