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Trump declares US will ‘take over’ Gaza Strip, says all Palestinians will leave

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President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the US would take over the war-torn Gaza Strip and develop it economically after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere.

Though, this appears to be one of the most brazen ideas that any American leader has advance in years.

While hosting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at the White House, Mr. 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 terrorist attack of Oct. 7, 2023.

“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Mr. 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. Sounding like the real estate developer he once was, Mr. Trump vowed to turn it into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”

The brash and tough-talking American leader did not lay out an option allowing Palestinians who wish to stay to do so.

“I do see a long-term ownership position, and I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East and maybe the entire Middle East,” Trump said. “And everybody I have spoken to –– this was not a decision made lightly –– everybody I have spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land.”

Moreover, leaders in Egypt and Jordan have rejected Trump’s calls to resettle Palestinians.

It’s the latest of several pushes President Trump has made to expand U.S. control of land. Since taking office, he has suggested incorporating Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal Zone into the United States. All of those proposals have received pushback from local leaders.

The president said he may send U.S. troops to the region if he believes it is necessary. That would be a reversal of promises during his first term and on the campaign trail to wind down U.S. military presence outside the U.S. and end what he called “forever wars.”

However, Trump’s suggestion that Gazans leave the strip permanently amounts to a provocative stance that will endear him to Israel’s most conservative politicians but is generally a non-starter for Israel’s neighbors, who have said they are unwilling to accept new Palestinian refugees from the enclave.

At first on Tuesday, Trump framed the matter as a humanitarian one, saying it was impossible to believe anyone would want to remain in the war-torn territory.

“Why would they want to return? The place has been hell,” Trump said.

Instead of Gaza, he suggested the Palestinians be provided a “good, fresh, beautiful piece of land” to live.

Netanyahu, sitting alongside Trump in the Oval Office, smiled as Trump was speaking. The Israeli leader, under conflicting pressures domestically, was in Washington to ascertain exactly where Trump stands on the next phase of a ceasefire in Gaza, CNN reported.

But Trump’s dim views of Gaza as a permanent home for Palestinians was certain to provide grist for far-right allies of the Israeli leader, who have called on Netanyahu to abandon the temporary truce that was struck last month.