President Donald Trump's statement yesterday that the United States would establish control over the Gaza Strip after Palestinians are relocated elsewhere has sparked backlash, Reuters reported.
A senior Hamas official described the call for Gazans to leave as "expulsion from their land".
"We see it as a recipe for chaos and tension in the region because the people of Gaza will not allow such plans to be accepted," Zuhri said.
"He's completely out of his mind" wrote Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut on the social platform "Ex".
"A US invasion of the Gaza Strip would lead to the killing of thousands of American soldiers and a decades-long war in the Middle East. It's like a bad, inappropriate joke," Murphy added.
Democratic Congressman Jake Auchinclos of Massachusetts called the proposal "reckless and unreasonable" in a statement to the "News Nation" television news network. According to him, it could derail the second phase of the truce between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement "Hamas".
"We need to understand what Trump's motives are," he said. "As always, when Trump proposes a policy position, there is an unpolitical, self-serving connection," Auchinclos added. Referring to Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner, the congressman added: "They want to turn this into resorts".
John Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, noted: "Many Gazans are descended from Palestinians who fled areas in present-day Israel who were never able to return to their former homes. I'm skeptical that many of them would be willing to leave even a destroyed Gaza".