Palestinians and Arab states reject Trump's Gaza takeover plan

The UN human rights office warned that any forcible transfer in, or deportation of, people from occupied territory was strictly prohibited under international law.

Palestinians also fear a repeat of the "Nakba", or "catastrophe", when hundreds of thousands fled or were driven from their homes before and during the war that followed the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.

Many of those refugees ended up in Gaza, where they and their descendants make up three quarters of the population. Another 900,000 registered refugees live in the West Bank, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Middle East war along with Gaza, while 3.4 million others live in Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, according to the UN.

Israel unilaterally withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005, though it retained control of its shared border, airspace and shoreline, giving it effective control of the movement of people and goods. The UN still regards Gaza as Israeli-occupied territory because of the level of control Israel has.

Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry said the kingdom "unequivocally rejected" Trump's proposal for post-war Gaza and reiterated that it would continue its efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state and "not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that".

"Achieving lasting and just peace is impossible without the Palestinian people obtaining their legitimate rights," it added.

Following talks in Cairo, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said he had agreed with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa on "the importance of moving forward with early recovery projects... without the Palestinians leaving the Gaza Strip, especially with their commitment to their land and refusal to leave it".

During a later meeting in Amman with President Abbas, Jordan's King Abdullah II expressed "rejection of any attempts to annex land or displace Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank" and called "for supporting the steadfastness of Palestinians on their lands", according to the royal court.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the relocation of Palestinians from Gaza in any form was "unacceptable", adding: "It is absurd to even consider it."

Western governments also expressed alarm about any forced displacement.

France's foreign ministry said it would "constitute a serious violation of international law, an attack on the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians, but also a major obstacle to the two-state solution and a major destabilising factor for our close partners Egypt and Jordan, as well as for the entire region".

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said Palestinians "must be allowed home".

"They must be allowed to rebuild, and we should be with them in that rebuild on the way to a two-state solution," he told Parliament.