‘Gaza is not for sale’, Hamas rejects US takeover plan

Gaza death toll surges as 88 more killed in Israeli attacks

GAZA: At least 88 Palestinians were killed and 421 others were injured in the Gaza Strip over the last 24 hours as a result of the ongoing Israeli aggression, according to medical sources.

Local health authorities confirmed that the Palestinian death toll from the Israeli onslaught since October 2023 has risen to 63,459 fatalities, with an additional 160,256 people sustaining injuries. The majority of the victims are women and children.

Seven Palestinians have died from starvation and malnutrition in Gaza over the past 24 hours, amid a total Israeli blockade on the region, according to medical sources, raising the total number of malnutrition-related deaths to 339, including 124 children.

Meanwhile, Hamas denounced on Monday a plan reportedly being considered by US President Donald Trump for the United States to take control of the devastated Gaza Strip and for its population to be relocated.

Almost two years since Israel began its campaign in Gaza after Hamas militants’ October 7, 2023 attack, swathes of the Palestinian territory have been reduced to rubble and the vast majority of its population has been displaced at least once.

A US newspaper reported on Sunday that the White House was considering a plan that would see Gaza — home to roughly two million people — become a trusteeship administered by the United States for at least 10 years.

The goal would be to transform the territory into a tourism magnet and high-tech hub, according to the US newspaper, which cited a 38-page prospectus for the initiative.

The outline also calls for at least the temporary relocation of all of Gaza’s population, either through “voluntary” departures to other countries or into restricted, secured zones inside the territory.

Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim slammed the proposal on Monday, asserting “Gaza is not for sale.”

“Gaza is… part of the greater Palestinian homeland,” he added.

Trump first floated the idea in February of turning Gaza into “the Riviera of the Middle East” after moving out its Palestinian residents and putting it under American control.

The idea drew swift condemnation from across the Arab world, including from Palestinians themselves, for whom any effort to force them off their land would recall the “Nakba”, or catastrophe — the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel’s creation in 1948.

Another official from Hamas said the group “rejects all these plans that abandon our people and keep the occupier on our land”.

They said such proposals were “worthless and unjust”, adding that no details of the initiative had been communicated to Hamas.

According to the newspaper, Gaza residents who own land would be given a digital token by the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust, or GREAT Trust, in exchange for the right to develop their property.

Recipients could use this token to start a new life somewhere else or eventually redeem it for an apartment in one of six to eight new “AI-powered, smart cities” to be built in the territory. Agencies