President Donald Trump declared Tuesday the United States could “take over” the war-torn Gaza Strip and said he was willing to put American troops on the ground to do it.
“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Trump said in a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The president said the U.S. would “level the site” and “create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area.”
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Asked whether the U.S. planned to send troops to secure Gaza, Trump said, “We’ll do what is necessary.”
“If it’s necessary, we’ll do that. We’re going to take over that piece, and we’re going to develop it,” he said. “I do see a long-term ownership position, and I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East.”
Trump said he had been exploring the idea “very closely over a lot of months” and secured “tremendous praise” from leaders in the U.S. and throughout the Middle East, who believed the move would bring stability to the region.
Efforts to rebuild Palestine should not be led “by the same people” but by “other countries of interest with humanitarian hearts,” Trump said.
“You have to learn from history,” he went on. “You just can’t let it keep repeating itself. We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal. I don’t wanna be cute, I don’t to be a wise guy, but the ‘Riviera of the Middle East.’”
Trump expressed optimism that Palestinians could “resettle permanently in nice homes” instead of returning to their homeland.
“I don’t think people should be going back to Gaza. I think that Gaza has been very unlucky for them,” he told reporters at the Oval Office. “My hope is that we could do something really nice, really good, where they wouldn’t want to return. Why would they want to return? The place has been hell.”
The president later said he envisioned “the world’s people,” including Palestinians, living in the Gaza Strip once it’s rebuilt, but did not respond to questions on where Palestinians will be housed in the meantime.
About 90 percent of Gaza’s 2 million Palestinian inhabitants have been displaced since Hamas launched a brutal attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the United Nations.
Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal just weeks ago, ending 15 months of fighting that has killed at least 46,000 Palestinians and over 1,000 Israelis.
Netanyahu expressed support for the idea floated by Trump, whom he hailed as “the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House.”
“He has a different idea and I think it’s worth paying attention to this,” the prime minister said. “We’re talking about it. He’s exploring it with his people, with his staff. I think it’s something that could change history and it’s worthwhile really pursuing this avenue.”
Not everyone appears to be on board, though. Trump suggested that leaders of Jordan and Egypt, which border Palestine, were hesitant about the prospect of a U.S. takeover.
“I have a feeling that despite them saying no, the king in Jordan and the general in Egypt will open their hearts and will give us the kind of land that we need to get this done and people can live in harmony and in peace,” Trump said.
Saudi Arabia was also quick to emphasize that it would not establish ties with Israel unless a Palestinian state is created, after Trump claimed the Middle Eastern power is “going to be very helpful” in achieving a normalization deal with the Jewish state.
Democratic and Republican lawmakers were similarly polarized over Trump’s shock announcement.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said Trump’s plan was “ethnic cleansing by another name.” “What the president’s doing here is really throwing a match on an already very volatile region,” he told MSNBC.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) both expressed concern for American troops who would be sent to Gaza.
“A U.S. invasion of Gaza would lead to the slaughter of thousands of U.S. troops and decades of war in the Middle East. It’s like a bad, sick joke,” Murphy said.
Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the sole Democrat who seemed open to Trump’s suggestion, calling it “provocative” without rejecting it outright.
“The Palestinians have refused, or they’ve been unwilling to deliver a government that provided security and economic development for themselves,” he told reporters.
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said the plan was not “the best use of United States resources to spend a bunch of money in Gaza,” adding that he would “prefer that to be spent in the United States first.”
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said: “There’s probably a couple of kinks in that slinky, but I’ll have to look at [Trump’s] statement.”
