Palestinians will not be allowed to return to Gaza after the US takes over the enclave, Donald Trump has said.
In a new interview, the US President built upon his highly controversial proposal to resettle Palestinians while transforming the Gaza Strip into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
Asked if Palestinians would be permitted to return to Gaza after its redevelopment, Trump told Fox News’ Bret Baier: “No, they wouldn’t because they’re going to have much better housing. In other words, I’m talking about building a permanent place for them.”
The President added: “Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land,” before naming Jordan and Egypt as potential countries for Palestinian resettlement and expressing optimism about striking a “deal” with the two countries.
Trump, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on his way to attend the Super Bowl on Sunday, reaffirmed he is “committed to buying and owning Gaza”, although he did not say who the US would purchase it from, and referred to the territory as a “demolition site”.
“I think that it’s a big mistake to allow people – the Palestinians, or the people living in Gaza – to go back yet another time, and we don’t want Hamas going back. Think of it as a big real estate site, and the US is going to own it and we’ll slowly develop it,” he said.
Trump added that he would consider allowing Palestinian refugees into the US on a case-by-case basis, believing Gazans would rather relocate to a safe area than return home.
“They don’t want to return to Gaza. If we could give them a home in a safer area – the only reason they’re talking about returning to Gaza is they don’t have an alternative. When they have an alternative, they don’t want to return to Gaza,” he said.
The President noted that the US could permit other states in the Middle East to help rebuild the territory.
Trump’s proposal for the US to “take over” Gaza and displace its Palestinian residents sparked outrage from Middle Eastern countries including Jordan and Saudi Arabia, who rejected the plan, when it was announced last week.
Jordan’s King Abdullah is due to meet with the President at the White House on Tuesday, and Trump is expected to hold talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi in the coming days.
In a clip from Trump’s Fox News interview, due to be broadcast on Monday at 6pm ET (11am NZST) Trump also said that he was serious about wanting Canada to become the 51st state, defended Elon Musk’s efforts to cut government spending and pledged to issue a 25% tariff on aluminium and steel imports.
Before touching down in New Orleans for the sporting event, the President voiced concern over the condition in which three Israeli hostages had been returned by Hamas on Saturday.
“I watched the hostages come back today and they looked like Holocaust survivors. They were in horrible condition. They were emaciated. It looked like many years ago, the Holocaust survivors, and I don’t know how much longer we can take that,” he said, adding: “At some point, we’re going to lose our patience.”
Ohad Ben Ami and Eli Sharabi, who were taken hostage from Kibbutz Be’eri during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and Or Levy, who was abducted from the Nova music festival, were led on to a Hamas podium by gunmen in worse condition than previous freed hostages.
The father of a remaining hostage, Kobi Ohel, told Israel’s Channel 13 the newly released men said his son, Alon, and others “live off half a pita to a full pita a day. These are not human conditions”.
Ezzat El Rashq, a member of the Hamas political bureau, condemned Trump’s latest remarks on buying and owning Gaza.
“Gaza is not a property to be sold and bought. It is an integral part of our occupied Palestinian land,” Rashq said.
So far, 16 Israeli hostages and 566 prisoners have been freed since the ceasefire began on January 19, with 33 hostages and 1900 prisoners expected to be released by the end of the first stage in three weeks’ time.
Talks on the second phase of the ceasefire deal were set to start on February 3, but little tangible progress appears to have been made despite Israeli forces fulfilling its commitment to withdrawing from the Netzarim corridor, which separated northern and southern Gaza, on Sunday.
Abdel Latif Al-Qanoua, a Hamas spokesman, said the troops’ withdrawal showed the militant group had “forced the enemy to submit to our demands” and thwarted “Netanyahu’s illusion of achieving total victory”.
Hamas and its allies still hold a total of 73 of the 251 people taken from Israel on October 7, 2023. Three hostages held captive since 2014 are also in Gaza.
Benjamin Netanyahu, who met Trump at the White House last week, is expected to convene security Cabinet ministers on Tuesday.
The Israeli Prime Minister told his Cabinet on Sunday that Trump had set out a “revolutionary and creative vision”.
“For a full year, we have been told that on the ‘day after’, the PLO, the Palestinian Authority, needs to be in the Strip,” Netanyahu said.
“President Trump came with a completely different vision, much better for the State of Israel, a revolutionary and creative vision, which we are discussing. He is very determined to carry it out. This also opens many possibilities before us.”
Netanyahu also promised that Israel will enforce the ceasefire agreement with Hamas, despite members of his coalition publicly saying they oppose entering the second phase.
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s hard-right Finance Minister and security cabinet member, said that entering the second phase of the ceasefire would be a “slippery and dangerous slope” which would encourage Hamas to “abduct more Israelis, and demand an Israeli withdrawal from Judea and Samaria, the evacuation of the settlements and the establishment of a Palestinian state in exchange for their release”.
Smotrich’s colleague, Orit Strock, the Settlements and National Projects Minister, even warned that the Religious Zionism party would leave the Government if Netanyahu agreed to enter the second phase of the ceasefire.
“If Netanyahu decides to go in this disastrous direction” the Religious Zionism party will “make sure that the government does not continue to exist”, Strock said last week.
However, a recent poll conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute revealed that 70% of Israelis support proceeding to the next stage of the ceasefire.
Families of hostages also continue to demonstrate, mainly in Tel Aviv, to put pressure on the Government to continue the ceasefire.
Keir Starmer announced the move as he headed to Canada for G7 talks.