Palestinians have no choice but to leave Gaza, says Trump as he hosts Netanyahu
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday reiterated the idea of displacing Palestinians from Gaza, saying the people there had no alternative but to leave the Palestinian enclave, which had been devastated by Israel’s military assault. He called the Palestinian territory a “demolition site” and expressed his desire for a deal to permanently resettle people from the war-torn enclave.
The US President made these remarks as he held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
Trump called for Jordan and Egypt to take in Gazans, saying Palestinians there had no alternative but to leave the coastal strip while it is being rebuilt after nearly 16 months of a devastating war between Israel and Hamas militants. The Republican leader said that he would support resettling Palestinians “permanently”.
“”The Gaza thing has never worked. 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 told reporters in the Oval Office.
They would “love to leave Gaza. I would think that they would be thrilled, he said, adding, “I don’t know how they (Palestinians) could want to stay,” when asked about the reaction of Palestinian and Arab leaders to his proposal.
The US President had previously proposed this idea, which has been rejected by Arab states and the Palestinian Authority. Some human rights advocates have even equated it to ethnic cleansing.
Trump was hosting Netanyahu at the White House to discuss the future of the Gaza ceasefire, strategies to counter Iran, and the prospects for a renewed push toward an Israeli-Saudi normalisation deal. As Netanyahu arrived, Trump greeted him at the door, and the two leaders posed for photographs, smiling.
This meeting, Trump’s first with a foreign leader since his return to office on January 20, was intended to highlight the strong ties between the president and Netanyahu, following a period of strained relations between the Israeli prime minister and former President Joe Biden over Israel’s handling of the Gaza war.
However, Netanyahu may face pressure from a sometimes unpredictable American president whose broader Middle East policy goals may not always align with Netanyahu’s domestic and geopolitical interests, news agency Reuters reported.
The meeting between Trump and Netanyahu coincided with the commencement of mediation efforts between Israel and Hamas, focusing on the critical second phase of the ceasefire agreement and hostage release–an aspect many experts view as fraught with challenges.
