DUBAI—Saudi Arabia and Turkey on Wednesday dismissed a proposal by President Trump for the U.S. to take control of Gaza and for Palestinians to permanently leave the strip, an idea likely to be also rejected by other Middle Eastern nations.

Riyadh said its commitment to a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank was “firm and unwavering,” and that the kingdom wouldn’t establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that goal. “Achieving lasting and just peace is impossible without the Palestinian people obtaining their legitimate rights,” Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry said.

Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s biggest economic power and the home of Islam’s most sacred sites, is considered the most influential Arab player in the future of the Palestinian cause. Moving forward with the Trump plan for the strip could undermine the president and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s goal of a normalization agreement between Israel and the kingdom, which could pave the way for other Arab and Muslim states to follow.

Egypt, Jordan, the Arab Gulf states and Palestinian leaders in recent weeks have also rejected the idea of Palestinians relocating from the Gaza Strip.

Turkey’s foreign minister on Wednesday said the country, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization member with considerable influence in the region, is against any forced displacement and “all initiatives that try to take the people of Gaza out of the equation.”

Trump proposed a U.S. takeover of Gaza late Tuesday during a press conference alongside Netanyahu at the White House. Trump said the U.S. would “own” Gaza and “do a job with it,” leveling the bombed-out strip and developing the site to create jobs and economic growth.

The president’s proposal followed similar comments in recent weeks that he believed Palestinians should leave Gaza to allow the strip’s reconstruction following 15 months of war between Israel and militant group Hamas. The statement Tuesday laid out his most detailed vision yet for the plan, which, if implemented, would deeply involve the U.S. in a development project that administration officials said could take 10 to 15 years.

Left unaddressed was how the U.S. would persuade Palestinians to voluntarily surrender Gaza and whether Israel would eventually exercise sovereignty there—a goal pursued by some right-wing members of Netanyahu’s government. Trump in his press conference said he didn’t see Jewish settlements “happening” in Gaza but also wasn’t clear on who would benefit from the redevelopment of the strip.

Gaza resident Younis Suliman dismissed the Trump proposal. “The Palestinian people will remain steadfast, holding on to their land,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “It is impossible to view the statements of U.S. President Donald Trump without concluding that he is detached from the realities of Middle Eastern politics and history.”

The idea for a U.S. takeover of the strip comes at a highly sensitive moment, and risks overshadowing other U.S. priorities in the Middle East. Israel and Hamas are in the middle of a fragile six-week cease-fire that mediators hope to form the basis of a lasting peace. The U.S. and Israel are also weighing how to stop Iran’s advancing nuclear program, and had hoped to draw Saudi Arabia into a broader regional alliance against Tehran.

Israel and Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group, have agreed to exchange 33 hostages in Gaza in return for the release of hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli prisons. The two sides have said they would negotiate toward a permanent end to the fighting in parallel to the current truce, which began on Jan. 19.

Those further talks, which will be mediated by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar, have yet to start in earnest, in part because Netanyahu was traveling to the U.S. to meet with Trump. The families of those held hostage in Gaza have been lobbying both the Israeli government and new White House administration to see through the multiphase cease-fire and extend it beyond the initial six weeks to free all of the hostages.

Netanyahu has vowed to return to fighting in Gaza should Hamas refuse to disarm and give up control of the strip, but that outcome has been rejected by Hamas. Trump on Tuesday said he hoped that the cease-fire would be the basis for a larger, more enduring peace but wasn’t sure whether the truce would hold.

The talks toward a permanent end to fighting are intertwined with establishing a long-term plan for Gaza, and all sides had been waiting on U.S. officials to put forward ideas that might inform the negotiations.

While Hamas has been battered in the war, it remains a force in Gaza and is likely to fight to halt any forced removal of Palestinians.

Hamas said Trump’s statements reflected deep ignorance of the history of the region. “Gaza is not a common land for any party to decide to control,” the group said.


Trump has said that he would like both Egypt and Jordan, major recipients of U.S. military aid, to take in Palestinians. Egyptian officials in recent days have been on a diplomatic push to reaffirm Middle East support for the establishment of a Palestinian state that includes Gaza.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi held a phone call Tuesday with Jordan’s King Abdullah II to discuss the issue. Egypt’s foreign minister traveled to Turkey, where the two countries released a statement before Trump’s comments, rejecting the displacement of Palestinians.

Mohammad Mustafa, prime minister of the U.S.-backed Palestinian Authority, was in Egypt Wednesday to discuss Cairo’s support for the authority and early reconstruction efforts in Gaza. The visit came as officials from the authority denounced the Trump proposal, calling the suggested displacement a violation of international law and an infringement on Palestinian rights.

The authority governs parts of the West Bank and coordinates on security matters with Israel. Despite its unpopularity among Palestinians in the West Bank due to corruption, repression and failure to achieve national self-determination, the authority is seeking a role in governing postwar Gaza, a proposal the Biden administration had said it supported.

Arab states have long been opposed to taking in displaced Palestinians, fearing that enabling population transfers could end aspirations for a Palestinian state. Some neighboring states are worried that an influx of Palestinian refugees could burden their already-strained economies or lead to integration issues. The concept has also stoked concerns that armed Palestinian resistance fighters could establish themselves in neighboring Arab countries, as has happened in the past, which could lead to Israeli military intervention on their soil.

A handful of Arab governments have established diplomatic ties with Israel in the years leading up to the Israel-Hamas war, though the Palestinian cause remains a central issue for many Arab civilians across the region. The war has galvanized the cause’s supporters, leading to some demonstrations in the region and sparking fear of instability among Arab rulers.

The U.S. and Israeli administrations have sought to deepen Israel’s position in the Middle East by establishing relations between it and Saudi Arabia.

Israel and the former U.S. administration had hoped to bring the two countries together as part of a regional alliance that could act as a counterbalance to Iran, which has vowed Israel’s destruction and in recent years also threatened Riyadh.

Even so, Saudi Arabia doesn’t view normalization as merely a diplomatic transaction that gives the kingdom greater security at the expense of Palestinian statehood, said Salman Al-Ansari, a Saudi political commentator. “It’s a strategic shift with a clear price: full Palestinian statehood,” he said. “Without that, there is no deal.”

Ismael Mohammed, 47, and his family, who were displaced to the southern part of Gaza at Israel’s order during the war, gather at the rubble of their destroyed house after returning amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, January 28, 2025. Through long stretches, the road traversed districts of near total ruin, with mounds of rubble lining each side where buildings had stood; in Jabalia they surveyed the ruins. Much of the neighbourhood had been flattened. “There is joy, but it is not complete. There is no home, no water, no food. I do not know how I am going to sleep tonight,” said Ismael. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Mohammed, 5, who was displaced with his family to the southern part of Gaza, plays with a toy retrieved from under the rubble of their house, after returning to it amid a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Jabalia, northern Gaza Strip, January 30, 2025. Through long stretches, the road traversed districts of near total ruin, with mounds of rubble lining each side where buildings had stood; in Jabalia they surveyed the ruins. Much of the neighbourhood had been flattened. “There is joy, but it is not complete. There is no home, no water, no food. I do not know how I am going to sleep tonight,” said Ismael, 47, Mohammed’s father. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas SEARCH “GAZA JOURNEY HOME” FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH “WIDER IMAGE” FOR ALL STORIES.

Write to Rory Jones at Rory.Jones@wsj.com and Omar Abdel-Baqui at omar.abdel-baqui@wsj.com