Trump also doubled down on his call for Palestinians to move out of the war-battered territory to Middle Eastern countries like Egypt and Jordan [GETTY]
President Donald Trump made an extraordinary proposal for the United States to “take over” the Gaza Strip as he hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for crucial talks on the truce with Hamas.
Trump also doubled down on his call for Palestinians to move out of the war-battered territory to Middle Eastern countries like Egypt and Jordan, despite the Palestinians and both nations flatly rejecting his suggestion.
“The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it,” Trump told a joint press conference with Netanyahu.
He also said he expected the United States to take “long-term ownership” of the Gaza Strip, adding that doing so would create “thousands of jobs.”
“I 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,” Trump told reporters during a White House press conference.
“This was not a decision made lightly, everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land.”
The US president also predicted the enclave, home to more than two million Palestinians, could become “the Riviera of the Middle East” as he announced his plan to take control of it.
“The Riviera of the Middle East. This could be something that could be so magnificent,” Trump said, adding that the United States would redevelop the territory.
Trump said the United States would get rid of unexploded bombs, “level the site”, remove destroyed buildings, and “create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area.”
But Trump appeared to suggest that it was not Palestinians who would return there.
“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 said.
He said Gaza’s two million inhabitants should instead “go to other countries of interest with humanitarian hearts”.
Netanyahu hailed Trump as the “greatest friend Israel has ever had.”
He said the US president’s Gaza plan could “change history” and was worth “paying attention to”.
Trump also said he would visit the Gaza Strip, saying:Â “I love Israel. I will visit there and I’ll visit Gaza and I’ll visit Saudi Arabia and I’ll visit other places all over the Middle East,” Trump told reporters at the White House, without committing to any timetable.
