Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has defended Donald Trump as a big thinker and dealmaker whose plan for the US to take over Gaza was aimed at maximising leverage in peace negotiations and would not breach international law.

But Mr Dutton reaffirmed the Coalition’s support for the two-state solution that would create an independent Palestine alongside Israel, amid global outrage over the US president’s proposal to relocate more than 2 million Gazans to rebuild the enclave and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.