Netanyahu hails Trump’s Gaza plan, says only those who renounce terror will be allowed to return
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls US President Donald Trump’s plan to relocate Palestinians from Gaza the “first fresh idea in years.”
“It has the potential to change everything in Gaza,” says Netanyahu, speaking to Fox News’ Mark Levin in a pre-recorded interview.
It is the third interview granted to a friendly media outlet during the six-day trip to Washington, DC, while avoiding speaking to almost all accompanying Israeli journalists.
“Not forcible eviction,” says Netanyahu, explaining the plan Trump presented last week.
“Not ethnic cleansing. Getting out from what all these countries and all these do-gooders say is an open-air prison. Why do you want to keep them in prison?”
Netanyahu says that Gazans will eventually be able to return home, something Trump initially said would not happen.
“Give them an option to relocate temporarily while we rebuild the place physically and while we also rebuild it in terms of radicalization. You want to come back? You have to disavow terrorism, but you can come back.”
The main challenge, says Netanyahu, is where to send the Gazans.
He calls it a “novel approach, and the correct approach… a very very good, new approach.”
Netanyahu denies that US special envoy Steve Witkoff “muscled” him into the ongoing hostage release deal with Hamas: “We had a real, not only friendly, but eye-to-eye conversation, and what happened was, I accepted this deal months ago. Hamas refused the deal.”
The prime minister says he appreciated the “initial support” from Joe Biden’s administration early in the war.
But, according to Netanyahu, as pressure built on Biden to change his position on Israel, the White House said that if Israel goes into Rafah, “we’ll stop the weapons.”
According to the premier, some in his cabinet wanted to end the war in Gaza given the US opposition.
“If we become a vassal state, we will not survive,” he warns.
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