In Shock Announcement, Trump says US wants to Take Over Gaza Strip Now

The shock move drew swift condemnation from regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia which Trump hopes will establish ties with Israel.

An official from Palestinian militant group Hamas, which ruled the Gaza Strip before fighting Israel in a brutal war there, said Trump’s statement about taking over the enclave were “absurd”. 

“Trump’s remarks about his desire to control Gaza are ridiculous and absurd, and any ideas of this kind are capable of igniting the region,” Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters.

Trump unveiled his surprise plan without providing specifics, at a joint press conference on Tuesday with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too…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 told reporters, sounding like the real estate developer he once was.

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.”

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.

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.

Saudi Arabia, also a key U.S. ally, rejects any attempts to displace the Palestinians from their land, Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia said it would not establish ties with Israel without the creation of a Palestinian state, contradicting U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that Riyadh was not demanding a Palestinian homeland when he said the U.S. wants to take over the Gaza Strip.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has affirmed the kingdom’s position in ‘a clear and explicit manner’ that does not allow for any interpretation under any circumstances, the statement said.

Trump said that he plans to visit Gaza, Israel and Saudi Arabia. Trump did not say when he plans to go on such a trip.

Netanyahu, referred to a few times by Trump by his nickname, “Bibi,” would not be drawn into discussing the proposal in depth other than to praise Trump for trying a new approach.

The Israeli leader, 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.”

PALESTINIANS FEAR ANOTHER ‘NAKBA’

Displacement is a highly sensitive issue among both Palestinians and Arab countries.

As fighting raged in the Gaza war, Palestinians feared they would suffer from another “Nakba”, or catastrophe, the time when hundreds of thousands were dispossessed of their homes in the war at the birth of the state of Israel.

When it comes to Saudi policy in the Middle East, the stakes are high for both Trump and Israel.

The United States had led months of diplomacy to get Saudi Arabia, one of the most powerful and influential Arab states, to normalise ties with Israel and recognise the country. But the Gaza war, which began in October 2023, led Riyadh to shelve the matter in the face of Arab anger over Israel’s offensive.

Trump would like Saudi Arabia to follow in the footsteps of countries like the United Arab Emirates, a Middle East trade and business hub, and Bahrain which signed the so-called Abraham Accords in 2020 and normalised ties with Israel.

In doing so, they became the first Arab states in a quarter century to break a longstanding taboo.

Establishing ties with Saudi Arabia would be a grand prize for Israel because the kingdom has vast influence in the Middle East, the wider Muslim world, and it is the world’s biggest oil exporter.

Trump on Tuesday urged 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.

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.

The United Nations and the United States, until Trump’s announcement, have long endorsed a vision of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side within secure and recognized borders. Palestinians want a state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, all territories captured by Israel in the 1967 war with neighboring Arab states.

Source: Reuters