Saudi Arabia rejects Israel PM Netanyahu's remarks on displacing Palestinians

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gestures while addressing reporters next to the US house speaker at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, US, February 7, 2025. REUTERS
Saudi Arabia affirmed its categorical rejection of remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about displacing Palestinians from their land, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

Israeli officials have suggested the establishment of a Palestinian state on Saudi territory. Netanyahu appeared to be joking on Thursday when he responded to an interviewer on pro-Netanyahu Channel 14 who mistakenly said "Saudi state" instead of "Palestinian state", before correcting himself.

While the Saudi statement mentioned Netanyahu's name, it did not directly refer to the comments about establishing a Palestinian state in Saudi territory.

Egypt and Jordan also condemned the Israeli suggestions, with Cairo deeming the idea as a "direct infringement of Saudi sovereignty".

The kingdom said it valued "brotherly" states' rejection of Netanyahu's remarks.

"This occupying extremist mindset does not comprehend what the Palestinian territory means for the brotherly people of Palestine and its conscientious, historical and legal association with that land," it said.

Discussions of the fate of Palestinians in Gaza has been upended by Tuesday's shock proposal from President Donald Trump that the U.S. would "take over the Gaza Strip" from Israel and create a "Riviera of the Middle East" after resettling Palestinians elsewhere.

Arab states have roundly condemned Trump's comments, which came during a fragile ceasefire in the Gaza war that Israel has been waging against the militant group Hamas, which controls the narrow strip.

Trump has said Saudi Arabia was not demanding a Palestinian state as a condition for normalising ties with Israel. But Riyadh rebuffed his statements, saying it would not establish ties with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state.

Gaza authorities say the war has killed more than 47,000 of the nearly 2 million Palestinians who live there. Israel launched its offensive after Hamas-led gunmen killed some 1,200 people and seized more than 250 as hostages in an October 7, 2023, attack, according to Israeli tallies.