FOREIGN ministers from Muslim nations have rejected calls by US president Donald Trump to empty the Gaza Strip of its Palestinian population.
The group condemned plans which aimed to displace Palestinians as "ethnic cleansing", instead backing proposals for an administrative committee of Palestinians to govern the territory to allow reconstruction to go ahead.
Meanwhile, Hamas reported “positive signals” in talks with Egyptian and Qatari mediators in Cairo on starting negotiations on the delayed second phase of its ceasefire deal with Israel.
Spokesman Abdel-Latif al-Qanoua gave no details, but said the group is willing to start talks and its delegation has been discussing the means to do so.
The foreign ministers gathered in the Saudi city of Jeddah for a special session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to address the situation in Gaza, at a time when the seven-week-old ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has been thrown into doubt.
In a statement, the gathering threw its support behind a plan to rebuild Gaza put forward by Egypt and backed by Arab states, including Saudi Arabia and Jordan, aimed at countering Mr Trump’s call.
The OIC comprises 57 nations with largely Muslim populations.
Without specifically mentioning Trump, the ministers said they rejected “plans aimed at displacing the Palestinian people individually or collectively … as ethnic cleansing, a grave violation of international law and a crime against humanity”.
They also condemned “policies of starvation” that they said aim to push Palestinians to leave.
It comes after Trump said the US would “take over” Gaza and “own it”, turning it into the "Rivera of the Middle East".
The ceasefire that began in mid-January brought a pause in Israel’s war on Gaza, which the Israeli military has said is aimed at destroying Hamas after its attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2024.
In the first phase of the ceasefire deal, 25 Israeli hostages and 2000 Palestinian hostages were exchanged by Israel and Hamas.
But an intended second phase of the deal – meant to bring the release of remaining hostages and a lasting truce and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza – has been thrown into doubt.
Israel has baulked at entering negotiations over the terms of the second phase. Instead, it has called for Hamas to release half its remaining hostages in return for an extension of the ceasefire and a promise to negotiate a lasting truce.
Since Sunday, Israel has barred all food, fuel, medicine and other supplies from entering Gaza for some two million people, demanding Hamas accept the revised deal.
At the same time, Trump has called for Gaza’s population to be resettled elsewhere permanently so that the United States can take over the territory and develop it for others.
Palestinians have rejected calls to leave.
The ministers at the OIC gathering supported an Egyptian-backed proposal that an administrative committee replace Hamas in governing Gaza.
The committee would work “under the umbrella” of the Palestinian Authority, based in the West Bank. Israel has rejected the authority having any role in the Gaza Strip, but has not put forward an alternative for post-war rule in the territory.
Under the ceasefire, Israeli forces have pulled back to a zone along Gaza’s edges.
Early on Saturday, an Israeli strike killed two Palestinians in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The Israeli military said it struck several men who appeared to have been flying a drone that entered Israel from Gaza.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The campaign was triggered by Hamas’ October 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which militants killed some 1200 people 251 people were taken hostage.
Most have been released in ceasefire agreements or other arrangements.
Hamas is believed to still have 24 living hostages and the bodies of 34 others.
