Hamas Calls Trump ‘Irresponsible’ for Gaza Takeover Plan: ‘Ridiculous and Absurd’

The jihadist terror organization Hamas reacted with outrage to President Donald Trump’s unprecedented proposal on Tuesday for the United States to seize the Gaza Strip and turn it into a global resort destination, calling Trump “irresponsible.”

Hamas is a genocidal radical Islamist terror group backed by Iran whose objective is the destruction of the Israeli state. Gaza was plunged into a brutal war following Hamas’s decision to invade Israel on October 7, 2023, killing an estimated 1,300 people and abducting dozens of others. Hamas terrorists tortured, gang raped, abducted, and desecrated the corpses of their victims, the vast majority of them civilians living their lives peacefully when the terrorists appeared. Hamas jihadists conducted door-to-door raids in which they killed entire families in their homes, ravaged a music festival for peace, and uploaded an extensive amount of video content of their crimes on that day. Some victims are believed to have been as young as infants.

Trump, Hamas insisted on Wednesday, was “irresponsible,” according to Iran’s PressTV propaganda agency.

“These remarks are hostile to our people and our cause,” Hamas complained in a statement, demanding the U.S. government retract Trump’s statements, “calling them irresponsible and in contradiction with the international law and the rights of the Palestinian nation.”

There is no functional, widely recognized Palestinian state. The United Nations and some allied countries recognize the Palestinian Authority of the West Bank as a state government, but do not include Hamas and its territory in Gaza as part of that government.

“Trump’s remarks about his desire to control Gaza are ridiculous and absurd, and any ideas of this kind are capable of igniting the region,” senior Hamas terrorist Sami Abu Zuhri condemned in a separate statement. “We consider them [the plan] a recipe for generating chaos and tension in the region because the people of Gaza will not allow such plans to pass.”

Silhouettes of people and soldiers stand in front of a computer screen displaying the American and Palestinian flags, in Edmonton, AB, Canada, on February 05, 2025. Donald Trump said the U.S. would take over Gaza and remove debris, tunnels, and explosives left there by Hamas after the war with Israel, adding he saw America taking a “long-term ownership position.” (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty)

Fellow Hamas terrorist Izzat el-Reshiq accused Trump of suffering from “confusion and deep ignorance” about the situation in Gaza.

“Gaza is certainly not a common land and it is not a property that can be bought and sold. American bias towards Israel and against our Palestinian people and against their just rights continues,” el-Reshiq complained.

Trump is currently hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House, who declared war on Hamas following the October 7 attacks. In remarks to the press on Tuesday night, Trump debuted a proposal for the U.S. government to seize control from Hamas, clear it of Hamas terrorist infrastructure, bombs, and weapons, and turn it into a global entertainment and tourism destination.

“The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too,” Trump asserted. “We’ll love it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous bombs and other weapons on the site … and get rid of the destroyed buildings [and] create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing.”

Trump suggested that Gaza would evolve out of its current state under Hamas into a home for “the world’s people.”

“I think you’ll make [Gaza] into an international. unbelievable place. I think the potential in the Gaza Strip is unbelievable,” he continued. “And I think the entire world, representatives from all over the world will be there.”

Trump has repeatedly asserted in the past month that Gaza in its current state is uninhabitable and that any reconstruction post-war will require the removal of the civilian population, at least temporarily. In late January, Trump indicated that he hoped for Egypt, the only other country besides Israel sharing a border with Gaza, would take a large number of displaced Gazans, and that Jordan would, as well.

“I’d like Egypt to take people and I’d like Jordan to take people. You’re talking about, probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” Trump told reporters, “and say, ‘You know it’s — over the centuries, it’s had many, many conflicts. And … something has to happen.”

Trump described Gaza as “literally a demolition site” that requires significant improvements. Both Jordan and Egypt have enthusiastically rejected plans to take in Palestinian refugees, claiming that offering a safe place for Palestinian civilians to escape Hamas is akin to ethnically cleansing Gaza.

“All talk about an alternative homeland for Palestinians is rejected. We will not accept it and will continue to confront it,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi asserted following Trump’s initial remarks in January. “Jordan is for Jordanians.”

The government of Egyptian strongman Abdel Fattah al-Sisi similarly issued a statement insisting that, by rejecting Palestinian refugees, Cairo was supporting “the resilience of the Palestinian people.”

Trump reiterated his wish to see civilians spared the horrors of living in Hamas-controlled Gaza following those rejections from Jordan and Egypt, however.

“I’d like to get them living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence,” Trump told reporters, referring to Gazans. “When you look at the Gaza Strip, it’s been hell for so many years.”

“There have been various civilizations on that strip. It didn’t start here. It started thousands of years before, and there’s always been violence associated with it,” he continued. “You could get people living in areas that are a lot safer and maybe a lot better and maybe a lot more comfortable.”

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