"Despite the tragedy we are living, despite the rain and the very bad weather, people are staying under no roof," said Qassem Abu Hassoun, standing in the rain surrounded by wrecked homes and broken roads in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

President Donald Trump's plan for the United States to take over Gaza, permanently displacing Palestinians who live there and creating the "Riviera of the Middle East," has upset Arab nations and Western allies and would overturn decades of American policy in the region.

The idea, a first indicator of Trump’s approach to the conflict, was sure to inflame the region given the history of Palestinians’ displacement from their territory.