President Donald Trump proposed on Tuesday that the United States takes care of Gaza and that all Palestinians living there – about two million people – leave, and described a permanent relocation in one or more sites financed by “countries of interest with humanitarian hearts ”.
President Donald Trump raised on Tuesday that the United States takes over the Gaza Strip, after the Palestinians who inhabit it are resettle in other places, to develop it economically.
During a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamín Netanyahu, Trump proposed that relocation could occur in one or more sites financed by “countries of interest with humanitarian hearts.” He mentioned Egypt and Jordan as possible places of destination of the Palestinians.
Trump said that the United States will take charge of Gaza in a responsible way to eliminate unleashed and rebuild ammunition Gaza to make it a mecca of employment and tourism, promising to make it “the Riviera de Oriente Medio”.
“The United States will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will also do a job with it,” Trump told reporters. “We will possess it and we will be responsible for dismantling all the dangerous without exploiting bombs and other weapons in the place.”
“If necessary, we will do it, we will take care of that portion (of land), we will develop it, we will create thousands and thousands of jobs and it will be something that every Middle East can be very proud,” Trump added.
Asked who would live there, Trump said he could become a home for “the people of the world.”
But Trump did not answer directly to a question about how and under what authority the United States can get with the territory of Gaza and occupy it in the long term.
Hamas, who has ruled Gaza for most of the last two decades and is now restoring control there, immediately rejected a massive relocation on Tuesday, and Egypt and Jordan rejected the idea of receiving a large influx of Palestinians.
For his part, the prime minister of Israel, Benjamín Netanyahu, described Trump's proposal as “a different future for that piece of land” to which “it was worth paying attention.”
He also said that Trump was “thinking outside the box with fresh ideas” and was “showing the will to pierce conventional thinking.”
Trump received Netanyahu on Tuesday at the White House.
“I think they should get good, fresh and beautiful land, and get some people to contribute the money to build it and make it pleasant and habitable and enjoyable and turn it into a home,” Trump told reporters before their meeting with the Israeli leader .
By describing Gaza as a “demolition site”, Trump framed the matter as a preferred “alternative” for the inhabitants of the strip devastated by war.
“At this time they have no choice. What are they going to do? They have to return to Gaza. But what is Gaza? There is practically no standing building, ”he said.
In recent days, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the southern areas of Gaza have marched to the north, towards their homes, after Israel allowed the population to return as part of the high fire agreement in exchange for the release of hostages With Hamas.
Earlier…
In statements to journalists at the White House on Tuesday morning, the United States envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, suggested that the administration is considering renegotiating parts of the high fire agreement that came into force on January 19, The day before Trump assumed the position.
“Part of the problem is that it was not such a wonderful agreement that was initially signed. It was not something imposed by the Trump administration. We had nothing to do with that, ”he said. “Now we are working within that framework and we are solving things.”
He reiterated Trump's suggestion to withdraw the Palestinians to neighbors Egypt and Jordan, saying that the five -year reconstruction plan for Gaza as described in phase 3 is “physically impossible.”
“It is unfair to have explained to the Palestinians who could return in five years. That is simply absurd,” Witkoff said in defense of the Trump plan.
Trump's insistence on relocating the Palestinians could indicate a desire to renegotiate the high fire agreement, particularly the second phase, said Ahmed Foud Alkhatib, a non -resident senior member of Atlantic Council.
“The objective could be to force Hamas to choose between gaza control or abandon the strip if he wants an Israeli withdrawal or reconstruction, or risking the entire population in front of a forced eviction, although it is unknown how it would be carried out That, ”Alkhatib said to the Voice of America.
Trump first suggested in January that he wants Jordan and Egypt to welcome more Palestinians displaced as part of an effort to “clean” Gaza.
In response, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the Palestinian authority and the Arab League published a joint statement earlier this month rejecting any plan to transfer the Palestinians of their territories in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
They warned that such plans “threaten the stability of the region, run the risk of expanding the conflict and undermine the perspectives of peace and coexistence between their peoples.”
A large number of Palestinians were expelled from their homes in what is called Israel today. In 1967, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip forced 300,000 Palestinians to escape, mostly, Jordan.
In the 1948 war that surrounded the creation of Israel, some 700,000 Palestinians fled from their homes, an event that the Palestinians commemorate like Al-Nakba, which in Arabic means “the catastrophe.”
(With information from Patsy Widakuswara (VOA) and Reuters)