President Donald Trump said the US would take over the war-ravaged Gaza Strip and develop it economically after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere, actions that would shatter decades of US policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Trump unveiled his surprise plan, without providing specifics, at a joint press conference on Tuesday with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The announcement followed Trump\u2019s shock proposal earlier on Tuesday for the permanent resettlement of the more than two million Palestinians from Gaza to neighbouring countries, calling the enclave \u2014 where the first phase of a fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage release deal is in effect \u2014 a \u201cdemolition site\u201d. Trump can expect allies and foes alike to strongly oppose any US takeover of Gaza, and his proposal raises questions whether Middle East power Saudi Arabia would be willing to join a renewed US-brokered push for a historic normalisation of relations with US ally Israel. The US taking a direct stake in Gaza would run counter to longtime policy in Washington and for much of the international community, which has held that Gaza would be part of a future Palestinian state that includes the occupied West Bank. \u201cThe US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,\u201d Trump told reporters. \u201cWe\u2019ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re going to develop it, create thousands and thousands of jobs, and it\u2019ll be something that the entire Middle East can be very proud of,\u201d Trump said. \u201cI do see a long-term ownership position and I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East.\u201d Asked who would live there, Trump said it could become a home to \u201cthe world\u2019s people\u201d. Trump touted the narrow strip, where Israel\u2019s military assault in response to Hamas\u2019 Oct 7, 2023 cross-border attack has levelled large swaths, as having the potential to be \u201cThe Riviera of the Middle East\u201d. Trump did not directly respond to a question of how and under what authority the US can take over and occupy Gaza, a coastal strip 45 kilometres long and at most 10km wide, with a violent history. Successive US administrations, including Trump in his first term, had avoided deploying US troops there. Several Democratic lawmakers quickly condemned the Republican president\u2019s Gaza proposals. Netanyahu, referred to a few times by Trump by his nickname, \u201cBibi\u201d, would not 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 in Gaza, said Trump was \u201cthinking outside the box with fresh ideas\u201d and was \u201cshowing willingness to puncture conventional thinking\u201d. Netanyahu may have been relieved that Trump, who forged close ties with the Israeli leader during his first term in the White House, did not pressure him publicly to maintain the ceasefire. He faces threats from far-right members of his coalition to topple his government unless he restarts the fighting in Gaza to destroy Hamas. Some experts have suggested Trump sometimes takes an extreme position internationally to set the parameters for future negotiations. In his first term, Trump at times issued what were seen as over-the-top foreign policy pronouncements, many of which he never implemented. A UN damage assessment released in January showed that clearing over 50 million tonnes of rubble left in Gaza in the aftermath of Israel\u2019s bombardment could take 21 years and cost up to $1.2 billion. Trump proposes permanent \u2018resettlement\u2019 Jonathan Panikoff, former deputy US national intelligence officer for the Near East, said Trump\u2019s plan would mean a lengthy US military commitment and if it came to fruition would be viewed by the Arab world as Washington \u201cnot learning its lessons from nation building in Iraq and Afghanistan\u201d. 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 Israel\u2019s bombardment. But this time Trump said he would support resettling Palestinians \u201cpermanently\u201d, going beyond his previous suggestions that Arab leaders had already steadfastly rejected. Forced displacement of Gaza\u2019s population would likely be a violation of international law and would be fiercely opposed not only in the region but also by Washington\u2019s Western allies. Some human rights advocates liken the idea to ethnic cleansing. Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri condemned Trump\u2019s calls for Gazans to leave as \u201cexpulsion from their land\u201d. \u201cWe consider them a recipe for generating chaos and tension in the region because the people of Gaza will not allow such plans to pass,\u201d he said. Trump offered no specifics on how a resettlement process could be implemented but his proposal echoed the wishes of Israel\u2019s far right and contradicted Democratic former president Joe Biden\u2019s commitment against mass displacement of Palestinians. Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East adviser to Republican and Democratic administrations, said Trump had given Netanyahu a \u201chuge pass\u201d with his Gaza announcement. \u201cHe validated almost every right-wing fantasy in Israel,\u201d Miller 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 establishment of a Palestinian state. Critics decry expansionist rhetoric Just two weeks into his second term, Trump was hosting Netanyahu at the White House to discuss the future of the Gaza ceasefire, strategies to counter Iran and hopes for a renewed push for an Israeli-Saudi normalisation deal. His Gaza proposal followed a frenetic first two weeks in office in which Trump has talked about a US takeover of Greenland, warned of the possible seizure of the Panama Canal and declared that Canada should be the 51st US state. Some critics have said Trump\u2019s expansionist rhetoric echoes old-style imperialism, suggesting it could encourage Russia in its war in Ukraine and give China justification for invading self-ruled Taiwan. Trump described the Gaza Strip as a longtime \u201csymbol of death and destruction\u201d and said Palestinians there should be housed in \u201cvarious domains\u201d in other countries. He said the US will take over the Gaza Strip, \u201clevel the site\u201d and create economic development but did not say how. Trump, who had a career of developing real estate before getting into politics, cast a broad-brush, optimistic vision of a US takeover of Gaza while skirting details on how the United States would go about possessing the enclave and securing it. He was also vague on where the Palestinian inhabitants of Gaza would go, saying he was confident Egypt and Jordan would take many of them, despite those governments already rejecting the idea. What impact Trump\u2019s proposals have on negotiations over the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal was unclear, as Hamas has adamantly insisted it wants to remain in Gaza while Netanyahu has vowed to destroy the group and never allow it to again rule the territory. Trump\u2019s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, played a key role in helping the Biden administration secure the long-sought Gaza deal before the January 20 transfer of power in the US. The first phase has led to Hamas\u2019 release of 18 hostages and Israel\u2019s release of hundreds of jailed Palestinians. \u201cWe\u2019re in Phase 2 now,\u201d Witkoff told reporters earlier. He said he met Netanyahu on Monday to discuss parameters for the policy negotiations and would meet the prime minister of Qatar, a mediator in the negotiations, in the US on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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