Trump has used the reconstruction of Gaza Strip as justification for the displacement of the territory’s inhabitants [Getty/file photo]
US President Donald Trump said Friday that he was in no hurry to advance his widely condemned plan for the Gaza Strip, which would see its Palestinian inhabitants displaced and the United States take control.
“There’s absolutely no rush,” Trump told reporters at the White House, where he was meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
Trump added that his plan, which he described as “real estate deals,” had received “great welcome,” without clarifying who from.
He continued to say that “Israel will give it [Gaza] to us, and it will monitor the situation from a security point of view.”
“We’re not talking about having troops on the ground or anything like that, but I think the fact that we’re there, and that there are investments there, would go a long way toward providing peace,” he claimed.
Trump’s shocking proposal to remove Palestinians from Gaza and relocate them to other countries has received regional and international condemnation. Some of his own Republican party members have also criticised the plan.
Trump last month suggested residents of the devastated Palestinian enclave be moved to Egypt and Jordan, insisting that Cairo and Amman agree to the plan.
He argues that the Gaza Strip is a “demolition site” and a dangerous place to live in, and that it would be more beneficial for the Palestinians to move elsewhere.
At least 61,709 people were killed, with hundreds of thousands more injured, during 15 months of horrific and indiscriminate Israeli war on the territory. Most of Gaza’s infrastructure was destroyed and the vast majority of its population was displaced multiple times.
Since the ceasefire came into effect last month however, residents of the territory have returned to the ruins of their devastated homes.
Earlier this week, during a joint press conference with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump suggested that the US take control of Gaza.
Netanyahu – wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Gaza – has welcomed the plan, dismissing the prospect of Palestinian statehood and instead suggesting that Palestinians establish their own state in Saudi Arabia.
The kingdom quickly rebuffed Netanyahu’s comments, reiterating that normalisation with Israel would only be possible if an independent Palestinian state was established with East Jerusalem as its capital.
