Opposition leader Peter Dutton has said US President Donald Trump brings "gravitas" to the Middle East as he reacted to his remark that the US could "take over" Gaza — a proposal that has been widely condemned.
Dutton's comments on Thursday came as US allies and adversaries rejected and denounced Trump's suggestion raised at a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a day earlier.
Trump proposed Palestinians living in Gaza be "permanently resettled" and the enclave be turned into the "Riviera of the Middle East".
Dutton said the billionaire didn't become president for the second time "by being anything other than shrewd".
"I think a lot of people ... are coming to grips with it as well as he's a big thinker and a deal maker," he told Sydney radio 2GB on Thursday.
"You've seen it in his business life, and the art of the deal is incredibly important to him, that both sides of the deal are contributing, that nobody's ripping each other off," Dutton said.
"There's a desire for peace here from every reasonable person, and hopefully, it can be achieved."
Those who dismissed Trump's idea defied "the reality of the gravitas that he brings to the situation", Dutton said, adding that Trump was trying to force allies to contribute more to rebuilding the region.
"I don't think they're unreasonable expectations, but yes, I think it is about how do you leverage the best possible outcome to provide that peace and stability," he said.
Palestinian community criticises Dutton's comments
Members of Australia's Palestinian community have heavily criticised Dutton for "legitimising" the plan put forward by Trump, which they say amounts to ethnic cleansing.
Australia Palestine Advocacy Network president Nasser Mashni said Gaza was not a bargaining chip and no one, including Trump, had the right to dictate Palestinians' future.
"Dutton is legitimising a plan to erase Palestinians from their homeland under the guise of peace," he said.
"Ethnic cleansing is not 'big thinking', it is a crime against humanity. To support it is to support the commission of a crime."
Prime minister's response labelled 'pathetic'
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said he won't "have a running commentary" on Trump's statements and that Australia's position supporting an Israel-Palestinian two-state solution remained unchanged.
"Australia's position is the right of both Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security in their own states and that remains our position," he told Nine's Today Show on Thursday.
Asked about Albanese's remarks and reference to the two-state solution, United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, said it was "pathetic" as she labelled the plan "nonsense".
UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, has dismissed US President Donald Trump's proposal to take over Gaza as "nonsense". Source: AAP / Lukas Coch
"If Australia is not ready to recognise the state of Palestine, it has nothing to say about the two-state solution, it has nothing to contribute with when it comes to the two-state solution."
Some 146 of 193 UN member states recognise Palestinian statehood.
The United States, United Kingdom, and Australia do not, although Foreign Minister Penny Wong told the UN General Assembly last year that Australia wanted a clear timeline for statehood recognition.
White House walks back elements of Donald Trump's proposal
Some experts said the proposed actions could violate international law. Others described Trump's ideas as unworkable. Human rights advocates said it would amount to ethnic cleansing.
At a White House briefing on Wednesday (local time), Trump's press secretary Karoline Leavitt hailed his Gaza proposal as "historic" and "outside of the box" thinking but stressed Trump had not made a commitment to putting "boots on the ground" in the Palestinian enclave. She declined, however, to rule out the potential use of US troops there.
At the same time, Leavitt walked back Trump's earlier assertion that Gazans needed to be permanently resettled in neighbouring countries, saying instead that they should be "temporarily relocated" for the rebuilding process.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio also said the idea was for Gazans to leave the territory for an "interim" period of reconstruction and debris-clearing.
It was unclear whether Trump would go ahead with his proposal or simply take an extreme position as a bargaining strategy, as he has done on other issues in the past.
Israel has bombarded Gaza since it was attacked by the Palestinian military group Hamas on 7 October 2023. Some 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage, according to the Israeli government.
After nearly 16 months of Israeli bombardment, more than 47,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the health ministry there.
A ceasefire between Hamas and Israel is currently in place.
The first phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into force on 19 January after 15 months of war and involved a halt to fighting, the release of some of the Israeli hostages, and the freeing of some Palestinian prisoners.
Phase two of the three-phase deal is intended to focus on agreements on the release of the remaining hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.
— With additional reporting by the Australian Associated Press and Reuters.
