US will take over Gaza Strip, Trump says
US President Donald Trump says he wants the US to take ownership of the Gaza Strip and redevelop it after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere.
“We will own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site,” Trump said at a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday (US time).
Trump said the US would level destroyed buildings and “create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area”.
Asked who would live there, Trump said it could become a home to “the world’s people”.
The comments came after Trump earlier suggested that the approximately two million Palestinians who live in Gaza be “permanently” resettled outside the war-torn territory.
“I don’t think people should be going back,” Trump said. “You can’t live in Gaza right now. I think we need another location. I think it should be a location that’s going to make people happy.”
Netanyahu thanked Trump for inviting him to be the first foreign leader to visit the White House in his second term.
You might like
“You are the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House,” he said.
He also praised Trump’s leadership.
“You say things others refuse to say and after the jaws drop, people scratch their heads and they say, ‘You know, he’s right’,” Netanyahu said.
The Gaza war was triggered by the Hamas-led attacks on Israel, during which 1200 people were killed and more than 250 abducted. The subsequent war in Gaza has left the coastal strip in ruins and created a humanitarian catastrophe.
Trump called for countries “of interest with humanitarian hearts” to build “various domains” for Palestinians from Gaza.
“The king in Jordan and the general in Egypt will open their hearts and give us the kind of land we need,” he said.
He said Palestinians had no alternative but to leave the coastal strip while it was rebuilt after nearly 16 months of a devastating war between Israel and Hamas militants.
Stay informed, daily
“It’s a pure demolition site. If we could find the right piece of land, or numerous pieces of land, and build them some really nice places with plenty of money in the area, that’s for sure. I think that would be a lot better than going back to Gaza,” he said in the Oval Office.
“I don’t know how they (Palestinians) could want to stay.”
That echoed the wishes of Israel’s far right and contradicts former US president Joe Biden’s commitment against mass displacement of Palestinians.
Arab states and the Palestinian Authority have rejected the idea, which some human rights advocates have likened to ethnic cleansing.
Earlier, talks started on the second phase of the Gaza Strip ceasefire deal, a spokesman for the Palestinian militant group Hamas says.
The first phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into force on January 19 after 15 months of war and involved a halt to fighting, the release of some of the Israeli hostages held by Hamas and the freeing of some Palestinian prisoners.
Phase two of the three-phase deal is intended to focus on agreements on the release of the remaining hostages and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.
“Contacts and negotiation on the second phase have begun,” Hamas spokesman Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua said, without providing further details.
Netanyahu’s office said earlier that Israel was preparing to send a high-level delegation to the Qatari capital Doha to discuss continued implementation of the deal.
The initial six-week truce, agreed with Egyptian and Qatari mediators and backed by the US, has remained largely intact but prospects for a durable settlement are unclear.
Hamas and Netanyahu’s government, which includes hardliners who opposed the ceasefire deal, say they are committed to reaching an agreement in the second phase although each has criticised the other over its implementation.
Israeli leaders say Hamas cannot remain in the Gaza Strip. But the movement has taken every opportunity it has to show the control it still exerts despite the loss of much of its former leadership and thousands of fighters during the war.
Qanoua said Israel had stalled in implementing the humanitarian protocol of the ongoing first phase, hindering the repair of hospitals, roads, water wells and infrastructure destroyed by Israel’s 15-month offensive.
– with AAP
