US President, Donald Trump on Tuesday night, February 4, said that the United States would take over the Gaza Strip, resettle Palestinians in other countries and turn the territory into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”
Trump said the US would take over the war-ravaged Gaza Strip and develop it economically after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere’ in a startling announcement during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
The announcement followed Trump’s proposal earlier on Tuesday for the permanent resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza to neighbouring countries, calling the enclave – where the first phase of a fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire is in effect – a “demolition site.”
The US taking a direct stake in Gaza would run counter to longtime policy in Washington which has held that Gaza would be part of a future Palestinian state that includes the occupied West Bank.
“The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Trump told reporters. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site.”
“If it’s necessary, we’ll do that, we’re going to take over that piece, we’re going to develop it, create thousands and thousands of jobs, and it’ll be something that the entire Middle East can be very proud of,” Trump added.
“I do see a long-term ownership position and I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East,” he said, adding that he had spoken to regional leaders and they supported the idea.
Asked who would live there, Trump said it could become a home to “the world’s people.” Trump touted the narrow strip, where Israel’s military assault in response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border attack has levelled large swaths, as having the potential to be “The Riviera of the Middle East.”
Trump did not directly respond to a question of how and under what authority the US can take over and occupy Gaza, home to around two million people with a long, violent history over control of the coastal strip. Successive US administrations, including Trump in his first term, had avoided deploying US troops there.
Netanyahu refused to be drawn into discussing the proposal in depth other than to praise Trump for trying a new approach.
The Israeli leader, 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 a willingness to puncture conventional thinking.”
Jonathan Panikoff, former deputy US national intelligence officer for the Near East, said Trump’s plan would mean a lengthy US military commitment and if it came to fruition would be viewed by the Arab world as Washington “not learning its lessons from nation building in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Trump earlier repeated his call for Jordan, Egypt and other Arab states to take in Gazans, saying Palestinians there had no alternative but to abandon the coastal strip, which must be rebuilt after nearly 16 months of a devastating war between Israel and Hamas militants.
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.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri condemned Trump’s calls for Gazans to leave as “expulsion from their land.”
“We consider them a recipe for generating chaos and tension in the region because the people of Gaza will not allow such plans to pass,” he said.
The Saudi government, in a statement, stressed its rejection of any attempt to displace Palestinians from their land and said it would not establish relations with Israel without the establishment of a Palestinian state.