President Trump’s explosive comments about the Gaza Strip immediately triggered a wave of backlash.
The U.S. will “take over the Gaza Strip,” level it and rebuild the area, President Donald Trump said during a press conference Tuesday.
“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too,” Trump said Tuesday evening in a joint press conference with Netanyahu. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous, unexplored bombs and other weapons on the site.”
“Level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area,” he said. “Do a real job. Do something different. Just can’t go back. If you go back, it’s going to end up the same way it has for 100 years.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who joined Trump for the Tuesday press conference, is the first world leader to meet with the president at the White House under his second administration.
When asked about taking over the Gaza Strip, Trump said he could see the U.S. in a “long-term ownership position” of the piece of land, which would likely bring stability to the Middle East.
“I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East and maybe the entire Middle East,” Trump said. “And everybody I’ve spoken to – this was not a decision made lightly – everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land. Developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent in a really magnificent area that nobody would know. Nobody can look because all they see is death and destruction and rubble.”
Netanyahu, when also asked about the Gaza Strip, reiterated to the media that he has three goals, one of which is to “make sure that Gaza never poses a threat to Israel again.”
“President Trump is taking it to a much higher level,” the Israeli leader said. “He sees a different – he sees a different future for that piece of land that has been the focus of so much terrorism, so much, so many attacks against us, so many, so many trials and so many tribulations. He has a different idea, and I think it’s worth paying attention to this.”
Gaza has been devastated by months of Israeli military operations that followed Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which they killed more than 1,200 Israelis and took 250 people hostage.
Trump said the Gaza Strip has become “a symbol of death and destruction for so many decades and so bad for the people anywhere near it.”
“It should not go through a process of rebuilding and occupation by the same people that have really stood there and fought for it and lived there and died there and lived a miserable existence there,” he added.
Former Republican National Committee (RNC) chairwoman Ronna McDaniel shot down President Donald Trump’s plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza and turn it into a “riviera” on Tuesday, suggesting that the idea would not be able to get off the ground.
Reacting on NewsNation’s Cuomo to Trump’s remarks, McDaniel said:
Listen, I don’t think that this is something we’re gonna hear again. You saw Netanyahu kind of say, “Well we’ll look at it, review it.” Obviously, this is President Trump always thinking outside the box, always looking at different things, but it’s gonna have to have input from Arab partners, it’s gonna have to have input from Israel. I don’t know if this is gonna be something that’s gonna be a long-term strategy.
Host Chris Cuomo noted, “It requires something that nobody in America wants. You would have to have, what, a hundred thousand troops on the ground?”
“He would have to have support from Israel and Arab partners,” replied McDaniel:
I mean, look at what he’s done with the Abraham Accords, look what he did with moving the embassy. I mean, Trump has thought outside the box and I remember, I remember sitting with him when he moved the embassy and everybody was, “Oh this is gonna cause so much unrest in the Middle East, and we can’t move the embassy to Jerusalem.” And I remember him saying this in a meeting, he said, “We’ll never find peace in the Middle East with this still on the table, so once we take this off the table, we can negotiate,”and that’s how he thinks. He thinks differently.
She concluded, “So I do think he’s right that the same old, same old isn’t working and we do have to think differently when it comes to Gaza.”
Hamas strongly rejected President Donald Trump’s proposal, calling it a “crime against humanity.”
Fox News journalist Trey Yingst reported Wednesday that Hamas, the proscribed terrorist organization that has ruled Gaza since 2007, issued a statement to the network about Trump’s proposal.
Read the statement in full below:
What President Trump stated about his intention to displace the residents of the Gaza Strip outside it and the United States’ control over the Strip by force is a crime against humanity, and a reinforcement of the law of the jungle at the international level, and we consider it an interference in a topic which should not be of his concern, and accordingly we emphasize the following:
First: Over the course of 15 months, the previous administration tried to displace the residents of the Gaza Strip with its unlimited support, especially militarily, for Netanyahu and his fascist government in carrying out genocide against our people, and failed to achieve this goal in the face of our people’s steadfastness and adherence to their homeland. Hence, with the previous administration failing to accomplish, no upcoming administration will succeed in implementing.
Second: Gaza is in urgent need of comprehensive reconstruction plans after the systematic destruction caused by the aggression against it during 15 months, but the problem of reconstruction is not in the presence of the Palestinian people on their land, but rather in the continuation of the Zionist occupation and the stifling siege of the Gaza Strip for more than 17 years with American support.
Third: We demand urgent regional and international action to put an end to these malicious plans, because any attempts to implement such plans will destabilize security in the region and beyond.
Fourth: We demand that the mediators, especially the United States, oblige the occupation to implement the ceasefire agreement in its three stages without procrastination or manipulation, as we are committed to implementing the agreement as long as the occupation commits to it, and any manipulation in implementing the agreement may cause it to collapse.
