Trump insists on Gaza plan - Scholz calls move scandalous

On the flight, Trump spoke to journalists about buying the Gaza Strip. Parts of the territory could be given to other states in the Middle East for reconstruction, he said. Last week, Trump announced for the first time in the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the USA would "take over" the Gaza Strip and transform the area - marked by death and destruction after 15 months of war - into an economically flourishing "Riviera of the Middle East".

According to Trump, the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip should leave the area - even though, according to experts, expelling the two million or so people would violate international law and the United Nations is already warning of "ethnic cleansing".

Scholz and Merz react with irritation to Trump's move

The US President's statements, which were welcomed by Netanyahu and firmly rejected by Egypt and other countries in the region, triggered fierce criticism at home and abroad. Chancellor Scholz criticized Trump's move as scandalous. "The resettlement of people is unacceptable and against international law," said the SPD politician in the TV duel with CDU/CSU chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz on ARD and ZDF. Moreover, the term "Riviera of the Middle East" was "terrible" in view of the unbelievable destruction in the Gaza Strip.

Merz explained that he shared the Chancellor's assessment. Trump's initiative was part of a whole series of irritating proposals from the US administration. "But we'll have to wait and see what is really meant seriously and how it will be implemented. There is probably a lot of rhetoric involved."

According to Trump, the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip should be accommodated in other Arab states in future. "They don't want to go back to Gaza," the Republican claimed. "The only reason they're talking about going back to Gaza is because they have no alternative." Trump presented it as if he was primarily concerned about the welfare of the civilian population, who could no longer live in the destroyed Gaza Strip.

Trump's advisors had tried to defuse the president's previous statements before his new comments on board the presidential plane. The US special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, for example, said that Trump did not want to send US soldiers to the Gaza Strip or provide money for reconstruction. However, the criticism has not abated. So far, no Arab country in the region has agreed to take in the people at Trump's request.

Following Trump's move to relocate the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, a summit on the situation of the Palestinians is planned in Egypt. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has requested the summit meeting of Arab states, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry announced. On February 27, the heads of state and government of the region were to discuss the "new and dangerous development in the Palestinian question" in Cairo, it said.

Israel expands military offensive in the West Bank

Meanwhile, the Israeli army continues to crack down on Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. According to Palestinian reports, six people were killed in new military operations. In the West Bank, the army once again expanded the offensive it began two weeks ago and entered the refugee district of Nur Shams. According to Palestinian reports, two women were killed. One of them was pregnant.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah announced that the unborn child had not survived either. The 23-year-old woman was eight months pregnant. Her husband was also critically injured when Israeli soldiers opened fire on their vehicle in Nur Shams near the town of Tulkarem in the north of the West Bank. The army later announced that the military police's crime unit was investigating the incident.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz stressed that the military had extended Operation Iron Wall to Nur Shams. "We are smashing the terrorist infrastructure in the refugee camps and preventing their return; we will not allow the Iranian axis of evil to build an eastern terror front," said the minister.

Deaths in the Gaza Strip too

The situation in the Gaza Strip remains extremely tense despite the ceasefire between Israel's army and the terrorist organization Hamas that has been in place since 19 January. According to Palestinian reports, Israeli soldiers shot dead four people. Three young men were killed in Gaza City, according to the civil defense, which is controlled by the Islamist Hamas.

Residents told the German Press Agency on the phone that the victims had filmed Israeli military units near the border fence with Israel, whereupon the soldiers had opened fire. In the south of the Gaza Strip, an elderly woman was shot dead as she tried to get to her house, reported the Ministry of Health, which is also controlled by Hamas.

The Israeli army said on request that soldiers in the north of the Gaza Strip had opened fire on several suspects who had approached their positions in the buffer zone at the border fence. There had been hits, whereupon the suspects had retreated. The army once again called on all residents of the Gaza Strip not to approach Israeli troops under any circumstances. The statements by both sides could not initially be independently verified.

The Gaza war was triggered by the massacre carried out by Hamas and other extremists from the Gaza Strip in Israel on October 7, 2023. At the time, around 1,200 people were killed and around 250 were deported to the Gaza Strip. Israel then went on the attack. According to Palestinian figures, more than 48,000 Palestinians were killed in the 15 months of fighting, most of them civilians.