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U.S. President Donald Trump declared on Tuesday that the United States should seize control of Gaza and permanently displace the entire Palestinian population, The New York Times reports.
Hosting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at the White House, Trump said that all two million Palestinians from Gaza should be moved to countries like Egypt and Jordan because of the devastation wrought by Israel’s campaign against Hamas after the attack of Oct. 7, 2023.
“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Trump said at a news conference Tuesday evening. “We’ll own it and be responsible” for disposing of unexploded munitions and rebuilding Gaza into a mecca for jobs and tourism. Trump vowed to turn Gaza into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”
Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, said that Mr. Trump’s proposed relocation was “a recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region.”
“Our people in Gaza will not allow for these plans to come to pass,” he said in a statement distributed by Hamas. “What is needed is the end of the occupation and the aggression against our people, not expelling them from their land.”
Mr. Trump waved aside the opposition from Arab countries like Egypt and Jordan, suggesting that his powers of persuasion would convince them.
“They say they’re not going to accept,” Mr. Trump said during an earlier meeting with Mr. Netanyahu in the Oval Office. “I say they will.”
Mr. Netanyahu, sitting at Mr. Trump’s side, smiled with satisfaction as the president first outlined his ideas. Later, during the joint news conference, the Israeli prime minister heaped praise on Mr. Trump.
“You cut to the chase,” Mr. Netanyahu told Mr. Trump. “You see things others refuse to see. You say things others refuse to say, and after the jaws dropped, people scratch their heads and they say, ‘you know, he’s right.’”
“This is the kind of thinking that will reshape the Middle East and bring peace,” he added.
In his remarks, Mr. Trump insisted that Palestinians would quickly warm to his idea.