Iran has condemned what it described as a U.S.-Israel plan seeking to remove Palestinians from the Gaza Strip days after the U.S. rejected $53 billion Arab proposals for reconstruction of the devastated territory.
Newsweek has reached out to the White House and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s office for comments.
Why It Matters
The remarks come amid Iran’s rising tensions with the U.S. and Israel following Trump‘s decision to tighten oil sanctions on Iran in February. Both the U.S. and Israel have warned Iran of potential military action to halt its nuclear ambitions. Iran has, meanwhile, vowed to launch a military operation against Israel as retaliation for an earlier tit-for-tat attack.
A tent camp for displaced Palestinians is set up amid destroyed buildings in the Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025.
A tent camp for displaced Palestinians is set up amid destroyed buildings in the Khan Younis refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025.
Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo
What To Know
The United States and Israel have rejected a $53 billion Gaza reconstruction plan put forward by several Arab leaders as an alternative to Trump’s plan and which would not involve relocating the population.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei described the plan as a “continuation of the genocide” through political means, according to Iranian news agencies.
Speaking in a televised interview Wednesday, Baqaei said that the US-Israeli plan seeks to forcibly transfer Gaza’s residents to neighboring countries like Jordan, Egypt, and potentially Saudi Arabia, as part of a broader political strategy, Iranian media reported.
Baqaei stated that Iran has requested an emergency foreign ministerial meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the leading organization grouping Muslim countries, to address the current situation in Gaza and the West Bank.
Gaza has been devasted in the war between Iranian-backed Hamas and Israel since the Palestinian militant group launched a cross-border attack on October 7, 2023 in which some 1,200 Israelis were killed and more than 200 kidnapped. Health officials in Hamas-run Gaza put the Palestinian death toll at over 48,000 people.
What People Are Saying
Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei quoted by MEHR News Agency: “Today’s plans, which are based on the forced relocation of the people of Gaza from the occupied Palestine, are the continuation of genocide in another way, that is, by using political tools.”
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, in an interview with Fox News in February: “The actual idea of allowing for its Gazans who want to leave, to leave. I mean, what’s wrong with that? They can leave. They can then come back. They can relocate and come back, but you have to rebuild Gaza.”
What Happens Next
Tensions between Iran and Israel are anticipated to intensify, heightening fears of a broader regional conflict.