Trump says US will take over Gaza Strip in shock announcement
President Donald Trump said the U.S. would take over the war-ravaged Gaza Strip and develop it economically after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere, actions that would shatter decades of U.S. 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's shock proposal earlier on Tuesday for the
permanent resettlement of the more than two million Palestinians from
Gaza to neighboring countries, calling the enclave - where the first
phase of a fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage release deal is in
effect - a "demolition site."
Trump
can expect allies and foes alike to strongly oppose any U.S. takeover
of Gaza, and his proposal raises questions whether Middle East power
Saudi Arabia would be willing to join a renewed U.S.-brokered push for a
historic normalization of relations with U.S. ally Israel.
The
U.S. 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.
"The
U.S. 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."
"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
said. "I do see a long-term ownership position and I see it bringing
great stability to that part of the Middle East."
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 leveled
large swaths, as having the potential to be “The Riviera of the Middle
East.”
Gaza is a coastal strip 25 miles (45 km)
long and at most 6 miles (10 km) wide, with a violent history.
Several Democratic lawmakers quickly condemned the Republican president's Gaza proposals.
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."
Netanyahu faces threats from
far-right members of his coalition to topple his government unless he
restarts the fighting in Gaza to destroy Iran-backed Hamas.
A U.N. damage assessment
released in January showed that clearing over 50 million tonnes of
rubble left in Gaza in the aftermath of Israel's bombardment could take
21 years and cost up to $1.2 billion.
TRUMP PROPOSES PERMANENT 'RESETTLEMENT'
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.
But
this time Trump said he would support resettling Palestinians
"permanently," going beyond his previous suggestions that Arab leaders
had already steadfastly rejected.
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. Some human rights advocates
liken the idea to ethnic cleansing.
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 establishment of a Palestinian
state.
CRITICS DECRY EXPANSIONIST RHETORIC
His
Gaza proposal followed a frenetic first two weeks in office in which
Trump has talked about a U.S. takeover of Greenland, warned of the
possible seizure of the Panama Canal and declared that Canada should be
the 51st U.S. state.
Some
critics have said Trump's 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 "symbol of death and
destruction" and said Palestinians there should be housed in "various
domains" in other countries. He said the U.S. will take over the Gaza
Strip, "level the site" 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 U.S. 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's 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.
Reuters
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