RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – The Palestinian presidency on Thursday decried remarks made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the blockaded Gaza Strip.</p> <p>Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas, said Netanyahu’s comments — in which he floated the possibility of “handing over” responsibility for the strip to an Arab country — “reveal the magnitude of the conspiracy referred to as the ‘Deal of the Century’”.<br> </p> <p>The so-called “Deal of the Century” is a backchannel Mideast peace plan currently being formulated by the U.S. administration, details of which have yet to be publicized.</p> <p>If implemented, Abu Rudeineh asserted, the U.S. peace plan “will be as much a conspiracy against the Arab countries as it is against Palestine”. <br> </p> <p>“President Abbas has consistently warned against this,” he added, “hence his refusal to relinquish Jerusalem, which is the cornerstone that will safeguard Palestinian and Arab national interests.”<br> </p> <p>Abu Rudeineh went on to urge Hamas, which has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007, “to fully comprehend what is being planned for it”.</p> <p>The U.S. peace plan, he warned, “will lead to the Judaization of Jerusalem, the termination of the Palestinian cause and the loss of freedom and independence”.<br> </p> <p>The spokesman added: “The position of the Palestinian leadership has always been that there will not be a [Palestinian] state in Gaza — nor a state without Gaza — and no state without Jerusalem.”</p> <p>Speaking to The Jerusalem Post earlier Thursday, Netanyahu warned that Israel could reoccupy Gaza — from which it withdrew in 2005 — as a “last option”.</p> <p>“All the options are still on the table, including entering Gaza and occupying it,” he was quoted as saying.</p> <p>Another option, Netanyahu said, would be to hand responsibility for the blockaded enclave — along with its roughly two million inhabitants — over to another country.</p> <p>“I have spoken with many Arab leaders about this possibility… [but] no one wanted to do this,” he was quoted as saying.
