Hawzah News Agency- United Nations officials have condemned the idea of deporting people from Gaza, noting it’s strictly prohibited under international law, after President Donald Trump announced the US will seize the Palestinian territory and resettle its war-weary population.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk was definitive in his response to Trump’s statements, which have sparked outrage across the globe. “Any forcible transfer in or deportation of people from occupied territory is strictly prohibited,” Turk said.

Trump announced the plan during a news conference in Washington, DC with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hours earlier, doubling down on his previous suggestion of removing Palestinians from the war-battered enclave. Experts have said that would constitute ethnic cleansing.

In his statement, Turk said instead of Trump’s statements, the international emphasis should now be on reaching an agreement on the second phase of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

“It is crucial that we move towards the next phase of the ceasefire, to release all hostages and arbitrarily detained prisoners, end the war and reconstruct Gaza, with full respect for international humanitarian law and international human rights law,” Turk said.

Speaking at a news conference in Denmark’s capital Copenhagen on Wednesday, Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, also decried Trump’s plan as “unlawful, immoral and completely irresponsible”.

“It’s incitement to commit forced displacement, which is an international crime,” said Albanese.

International law prohibits the seizure of a sovereign territory without the consent of the controlling government.

Rights experts have said that because the UN’s top court has ruled that Israel is an illegal occupier of the Palestinian territories, Israeli authorities have no right to hand over control of Gaza to a foreign power.

Analysts have also pointed out that that as an occupying force, Israel is prohibited from permanently removing Palestinians from the enclave.

Albanese warned if the US president carries on with this plan, “it will make the regional crisis even worse”. She called for world leaders to stake a stand.

“The international community is made up of 193 states and this is the time to give the US what it has been looking for: isolation,” she said.

Source: Aljazeera