Vehicles move past destroyed buildings along the coastal road through the Nuseirat camp for Palestinian refugees in the central Gaza Strip. AFP
Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim said that they can "Soak it and drink its water, as the colloquial Palestinian proverb says". "Gaza is not for sale," he added.
Rumours surrounding a 38-page prospectus floating around Trump's White House, which aims to transform the territory into a tourism magnet and high-tech hub started on Sunday, when the Washington Post reported on the proposed plan.
This prospectus calls for at least the temporary relocation of all of Gaza's population, either through "voluntary" departures to other countries or into restricted, secured zones inside the territory.
Trump first floated the idea in February of turning Gaza into "the Riviera of the Middle East" after moving out its Palestinian residents and putting it under American control.
Naim stated that "any plan that centers on displacing our people is worthless and unjust, and can not be implemented, because it contradicts our historical and national rights".
He stressed that Hamas did not even receive any formal proposal or indication that such an action may be on the table, and that all information at present regarding this plan came from the media.
Other media reports also quoted another Hamas member saying that "The so-called displacement plan reflects an old colonialist thinking predicated on removing native peoples from their land, which provides a continuing pretext for the Israeli occupation to persist in its expansion and domination".
The reports on the recycled Trump/Netanyahu plan for Gaza comes as Tel Aviv pushes ahead with a military offensive to take Gaza City and ethnically cleanse one million Palestinians to the south of the strip. It als comes as Tel Aviv refuses to respond to the most recent truce proposal, presented by Egypt and Qatar, and agreed to by Hamas in mid-August.
'Nonsense'
According to the Post, Gaza residents who own land would be given a digital token by the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust, or GREAT Trust, in exchange for the right to develop their property.
Recipients could use this token to start a new life somewhere else or eventually redeem it for an apartment in one of six to eight new "AI-powered, smart cities" to be built in the territory.
The State Department did not immediately reply to an AFP request for comment.
Qasem Habib, a 37-year-old Palestinian living in a tent in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City, told AFP the reported proposal was "nonsense".
"If they want to help Gaza, the way is known: pressure (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu to stop the war and the killing."
Fellow Gazan Wael Azzam, 60, living in the Al-Mawasi area near the southern city of Khan Yunis, said he had not "heard of the new American plan, but even without knowing it, it is a failed plan".
"We were born and raised here," he added, questioning whether the US president would accept displacement from his own home.
But Ahmed Al-Akkawi, 30, said he would back the proposal if it halted the fighting.
"The plan is excellent if the war stops and we are transferred to European countries to live a normal life, and if guarantees are made to rebuild Gaza," he said.
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