President Donald Trump yesterday hinted of the possible US future ownership of the Gaza Strip and redeveloping it like “the Riviera of the Middle East.”
Trump stated this when he held talks with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
The two leaders discussed the fragile ceasefire and hostage deal in the Israeli-Hamas conflict and shared concerns about Iran.
The president also suggested that the 1.8 million displaced Palestinians in Gaza be permanently resettled outside the war-torn territory so that American troops could be stationed there.
“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too. We’ll make sure that it’s done world-class. It’ll be wonderful for the people — Palestinians, Palestinians mostly, we’re talking about.”
Trump said the U.S. would redevelop the territory after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere and turn the territory into a place where the “world’s people”— including Palestinians — would live.
Trump also said he was not ruling out deploying U.S. troops to support reconstruction of Gaza and envisioned “long-term” U.S. ownership of a redevelopment of the territory.
He offered no detail about what authority the U.S. would use to take the land and develop it.
Meanwhile, Egypt, Jordan and other U.S. allies in the Mideast have cautioned Trump that relocating Palestinians from Gaza would threaten Mideast stability, risk expanding the conflict and undermine a decades-long push by the U.S. and allies for a two-state solution.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry issued a sharply worded reaction to Trump, noting their long call for an independent Palestinian state was a “firm, steadfast and unwavering position.”
Saudi Arabia has been in negotiations with the U.S. over a deal to diplomatically recognise Israel in exchange for a security pact and other terms.
“The duty of the international community today is to work to alleviate the severe human suffering endured by the Palestinian people, who will remain committed to their land and will not budge from it,” the Saudi statement said.
Still, Trump insisted the Palestinians “have no alternative” but to leave the “big pile of rubble” that is Gaza.
He spoke out as his top aides stressed that a three-to-five-year timeline for reconstruction of the war-torn territory, as laid out in a temporary truce agreement, is not viable.
Last week, both Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Jordanian King Abdullah II dismissed Trump’s calls to resettle Gazans.
But Trump said he believes Egypt and Jordan — as well as other countries, which he did not name — will ultimately agree to take in Palestinians.
“You look over the decades, it’s all death in Gaza,” Trump said. “This has been happening for years. It’s all death. If we can get a beautiful area to resettle people, permanently, in nice homes where they can be happy and not be shot and not be killed and not be knifed to death like what’s happening in Gaza.”
Trump may be betting he can persuade Egypt and Jordan to come around to accept displaced Palestinians because of the significant aid that the U.S. provides Cairo and Amman.
Hard-line right-wing members of Netanyahu’s government have embraced the call to move displaced Palestinians out of Gaza.
“To me, it is unfair to explain to Palestinians that they might be back in five years,” Trump’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, said. “That’s just preposterous.”
Trump also signalled that he may be reconsidering an independent Palestinian state as part of a broader two-state solution to the decades-long Israel-Palestinian conflict.
“Well, a lot of plans change with time,” he told reporters when asked if he was still committed to a plan like the one he laid out in 2020 that called for a Palestinian state. “A lot of death has occurred since I left and now came back.”
With agency report
