MADRID: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday rejected a controversial proposal by US President Donald Trump to displace Palestinians from the war-devastated Gaza Strip.

The Arab League is scheduled to hold an extraordinary meeting in Cairo on March 4 in response to Trump’s plan to take over Gaza and permanently move its Palestinian inhabitants elsewhere, including to Egypt and Jordan, and then redevelop the coastal territory into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.

Speaking in Madrid ahead of the gathering, Sisi called for the “international community’s support and adoption of a plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip without displacing the Palestinian people — I repeat, without displacing the Palestinian people — from their land, which they cling to, and their homeland, which they do not agree to relinquish”. Sanchez, one of the staunchest defenders of the Palestinian cause within the European Union, agreed, saying “Gaza belongs to the Palestinians and is part of the future Palestinian state”. Trump has proposed a plan to redevelop the tiny enclave into an international beach resort after resettling its Palestinian inhabitants. He called on Jordan and Egypt to take in Palestinians.

Sisi added that the UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA), which provides aid, health and education services to millions in the Palestinian territories and neighboring Arab countries of Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, was indispensable for Palestinians. UNRWA said its operations in the Gaza Strip and West Bank will suffer after a Zionist law banned it in October on Zionist land - including East Jerusalem, which the Zionist entity annexed in a move not recognized internationally - and contact with Zionist authorities from Jan 30.

“Their expulsion would not only be immoral and contrary to international law and United Nations resolutions, but would also have a destabilizing effect,” the Socialist premier added.

Trump’s plan sparked an outcry from Arab governments as well as from world leaders, and the United Nations warned against “ethnic cleansing” in the Palestinian territory. “We stressed the importance of the international community adopting a plan to reconstruct the Gaza strip without displacing Palestinians — I repeat, without displacing Palestinians from their lands,” President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi told a press conference with Spain’s prime minister in Madrid. The two leaders also signed a declaration upgrading Egypt-Spain relations to a “strategic partnership”, as well as several memorandums of understanding in various fields including illegal migration and defense. — Agencies