US allies across Europe and the Middle East have condemned Donald Trump’s plans for Washington to “take over” Gaza and any attempt to expel Palestinians from the devastated territory.

Countries throughout the region and beyond denounced the proposals within hours of the US president’s shock Tuesday evening announcement that Washington should assume control of Gaza and that its 2.2mn-strong Palestinian population should be resettled.

German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock warned the plan for Gaza, swaths of which are in ruins after more than a year of war between Israel and Hamas, would “lead to new suffering and new hatred”.

She added: “There must be no solution over the heads of the Palestinians.”

Arab states, which have long rejected any expulsion of Palestinians, were also quick to attack Trump’s proposals.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday the country would “not establish diplomatic relations with Israel” without an independent Palestinian state, adding its position was “non-negotiable and not subject to compromises”.

After brokering normalisation deals between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain during his first term in the White House, Trump was widely expected to pursue an agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia. 

But Israel’s war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack, hardened Riyadh’s attitude towards Israel, and the kingdom has renewed its commitment to an independent Palestinian state.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has previously used the word “genocide” to describe Israel’s assault, which killed about 47,000 people in Gaza, according to Palestinian officials.

Both Jordan and Egypt also rejected the US president’s Gaza proposals on Wednesday, having earlier rebuffed Trump’s suggestion that they should accept displaced Palestinian refugees.

The exodus of Palestinians during the creation of Israel in 1948 created waves of displacement into neighbouring countries and triggered years of turmoil in the region.

Jordan’s royal court said King Abdullah set out his “rejection of any attempts to annex land and displace the Palestinians”.

Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty called for faster humanitarian assistance “without Palestinians leaving the Gaza Strip, especially with their attachment to their land and their refusal to leave it”.

Badr Albusaidi, Oman’s foreign minister, added “any attempt at forced resettlement would be a very serious crime” that would “condemn the region to a state of perpetual instability”.

Trump’s refusal to rule out using American soldiers to secure Gaza will also rekindle memories of the disastrous 2003 US invasion and occupation of Iraq, which further destabilised the region and sullied America’s reputation in the Middle East.

Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan described the US president’s remarks on Gaza as “unacceptable”.

In comments to state agency Anadolu, he added: “Neither we nor the region would accept a deportation from Gaza. Why put forth proposals that do not stop the conflict but will bring more conflict?”

Trump set out his plans while hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, the first visit to Washington by a foreign leader since the US president returned to office last month.

Arab states and Palestinians also fear Trump, who pursued a string of unabashedly pro-Israeli policies in his first term, could give Israel the green light to annex the occupied West Bank.

Far-right members of Netanyahu’s governing alliance have publicly called for Israel to claim sovereignty over that territory.

While Trump said on Tuesday he had not yet taken a position on that issue, he added he would make an announcement on it in the next four weeks.

Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank, denounced what he called “a serious violation of international law”, arguing only a two-state solution would bring peace and stability to the region.

Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that has controlled Gaza since 2007, said Trump’s “irresponsible” statements were “aggressive to our people and cause, will not serve stability in the region and will only pour fuel on the fire”.

As the US’s European allies also set out their objections to Trump’s plan, France said it rejected any “third party” control of Gaza.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said Palestinians in the territory “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”.

Starmer avoided direct criticism of Trump, but evoked “the image of thousands of Palestinians walking, literally walking through the rubble, to try to find their homes and their communities in Gaza” and called for a “sustained” ceasefire in the enclave.

Additional reporting by Lucy Fisher in London