U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he wants his country to take ownership of the Gaza Strip and redevelop it after Palestinians are displaced elsewhere.
“We will own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site,” Trump said at the start of a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“I do see a long-term ownership position,” Trump said when asked about the U.S. controlling the territory for an extended period, adding that he is not ruling out sending U.S. troops in to secure Gaza.
He added the U.S. would level destroyed buildings and “create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area.”
Netanyahu, whose military had engaged in more than a year of fierce fighting with Hamas militants in Gaza, said Trump was “thinking outside the box with fresh ideas” and was “showing willingness to puncture conventional thinking.”
Trump suggested this would promote stability in the region and added:Â “This is not a decision made lightly.”
“Everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land.”
However, Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally in the region, stressed in a statement its rejection of any attempt to displace Palestinians from their land and said it would not establish relations with Israel without establishment of a Palestinian state.
Trump’s comments came hours after he suggested that displaced Palestinians in Gaza be “permanently” resettled outside the war-torn territory.
Israel removed its blockades of northern Gaza, allowing thousands of Palestinians to return to their communities — even if their homes were destroyed. Meanwhile, families in Israel are waiting for word about if, and when, hostages will be released.
“You can’t live in Gaza right now. I think we need another location,” Trump said earlier Tuesday.
“I think it should be a location that’s going to make people happy. You look over the decades, it’s all death in Gaza. 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 has previously called on Jordan, Egypt and other Arab countries to take in Palestinians temporarily while Gaza is reconstructed after the devastating war between Hamas and Israel, which was paused in January by a ceasefire. Tuesday was the first time he has publicly floated making that resettlement permanent.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion that it might be best to ‘clean out’ Gaza sparked anger from many Palestinians who want to return home despite the destruction from the Israel-Hamas war.
His proposals echo the wishes of Israel’s far right and contradict former president Joe Biden’s commitment against mass displacement of Palestinians.
Arab states and the Palestinian Authority have rejected the idea, which some human rights advocates have likened to ethnic cleansing.
Forced displacement of Gaza’s population would likely be a violation of international law and would be fiercely opposed not only in the region but also by Washington’s Western allies.
Palestinians claim Gaza as part of a future homeland, and many have indicated a desire to remain and rebuild.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri condemned Trump’s calls for Gazans to leave as “expulsion from their land.”
The war was sparked after a Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, killed about 1,200 people and took some 250 others captive, according to Israeli tallies. Dosens of hostages remain in Gaza.
A new report published in The Lancet journal suggests that the number of people killed in Gaza in the first nine months of the Israel-Hamas war could be 40 per cent higher than reported by Hamas officials.
Israel responded with an offensive that has killed more than 46,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, and displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s population.
Israel has faced accusations of genocide in Gaza because of the scale of death and destruction, which it rejects by saying it abides by international law and has a right to defend itself after the Hamas attack.
Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, the former Israeli defence minister, have been issued arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes.
