{"id":303080,"date":"2025-02-05T08:10:36","date_gmt":"2025-02-05T08:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=303080"},"modified":"2025-02-07T08:12:45","modified_gmt":"2025-02-07T08:12:45","slug":"trump-says-us-will-take-over-gaza-strip-in-shock-announcement-during-netanyahu-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=303080","title":{"rendered":"Trump says US will \u2018take over\u2019 Gaza Strip in shock announcement during Netanyahu visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Smith \u2013 The Guardian Feb 5, 2025<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Donald Trump has vowed that the US would \u201ctake over\u201d war ravaged Gaza and \u201cown it\u201d, effectively endorsing the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, in an announcement shocking even by the standards of his norm-shattering presidency.<\/p>\n

Trump, who has previously threatened Greenland and Panama and suggested that Canada should become the 51st state, added Gaza<\/a> to his expansionist agenda, claiming that it could become the \u201cRiviera of the Middle East\u201d and declined to rule out sending US troops to make it happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only reason the Palestinians want to go back to Gaza is they have no alternative,\u201d the president told a joint press conference with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> at the White House on Tuesday evening. \u201cIt\u2019s right now a demolition site. This is just a demolition site. Virtually every building is down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arguing that Palestinians could live out their lives in \u201cpeace and harmony\u201d elsewhere, Trump continued: \u201cThe US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it, too. We\u2019ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s necessary, we\u2019ll do that, we\u2019re going to take over that piece, we\u2019re going to develop it, create thousands and thousands of jobs, and it\u2019ll be something that the entire Middle East can be very proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n

The announcement followed a surprise proposal from Trump, a property developer, earlier on Tuesday for the permanent resettlement<\/a> of the two million Palestinians who live in Gaza to neighbouring countries.<\/p>\n

He called for Jordan, Egypt and other Arab states to take in Palestinians from Gaza, saying they 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.<\/p>\n

Trump said he would support resettling Palestinians \u201cpermanently\u201d, going beyond his previous suggestions that Arab leaders have already steadfastly rejected.<\/p>\n

But he offered no specifics on how a resettlement process could be implemented. His proposal echoed the wishes of Israel\u2019s far right and contradicted former president Joe Biden\u2019s commitment against the mass displacement of Palestinians.<\/p>\n

At the press conference, in which hundreds of journalists crowded into the east room, the president was asked if the plan might involve US military force. \u201cAs far as Gaza is concerned, we\u2019ll do what is necessary,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it\u2019s necessary, we\u2019ll do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He did not directly respond to a question of how and under what authority the US can take over the land of Gaza and occupy it in the long term.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do see a long-term ownership position and I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East and maybe the entire Middle East,\u201d he went on, claiming that he had spoken to regional leaders and they supported the idea. \u201cEverybody I\u2019ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve studied this very closely over a lot of months,\u201d Trump added, describing Gaza as a \u201chellhole\u201d and \u201csymbol of death and destruction\u201d. He said Palestinians there should be housed in \u201cvarious domains\u201d in other countries and expressed hope that the leaders of Egypt and Jordan will \u201copen their hearts\u201d to the idea over time.<\/p>\n

Pressed on who would live in a redeveloped Gaza, Trump said it could become a home to \u201cthe world\u2019s people\u201d, adding: \u201cI don\u2019t want to be cute, I don\u2019t want to be a wise guy \u2013 but the Riviera of the Middle East \u2026 This could be something that could be so valuable, this could be so magnificent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Netanyahu, who praised Trump as \u201cthe greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House\u201d, said \u201cit\u2019s worth paying attention to this\u201d idea and added that it\u2019s \u201csomething that could change history\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trump was \u201cthinking outside the box with fresh ideas\u201d, Netanyahu observed, and is \u201cshowing willingness to puncture conventional thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forced displacement of Gaza\u2019s population would probably be a violation of international law and would be fiercely opposed not only in the region but also by America\u2019s western allies. Some human rights advocates liken the idea to ethnic cleansing.<\/p>\n

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri condemned Trump\u2019s calls for Palestinians in Gaza to leave as \u201cexpulsion from their land\u201d, adding: \u201cWe consider them a recipe for generating chaos and tension in the region because the people of Gaza will not allow such plans to pass.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In what must sound like music to Netanyahu\u2019s ears, President Trump has announced plans for the permanent resettlement of Palestinians to neighbouring countries. To be implemented by U.S. troops, the plan will amount to ethnic cleansing <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":201587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[118,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-303080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7-10-gaza-war","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=303080"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":303083,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303080\/revisions\/303083"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/201587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=303080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=303080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=303080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}