President Trump says U.S. will take over, develop Gaza

U.S. President Donald Trump made an announcement on Tuesday during a joint press conference with visiting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he will pursue a plan where the U.S. assumes ownership of Gaza.

President Donald Trump says he wants the United States to take ownership of the Gaza Strip and redevelop it after resettling Palestinian people in other countries.

“The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site,” Trump told reporters at a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

He said the US would work to economically develop the area after cleaning out the destroyed buildings.

President Trump also said “I don’t think people should be going back,"  “You can’t live in Gaza right now. I think we need another location. I think it should be a location that’s going to make people happy."  

Trump's comments came as he and top advisers made the case that a three-to-five-year timeline for reconstruction of the war-torn territory, as laid out in a temporary truce agreement, is not viable.

“You look over the decades, it’s all death in Gaza,” Trump added. "This has been happening for years. It’s all death. If we can get a beautiful area to resettle people, permanently, in nice homes where they can be happy and not be shot and not be killed and not be knifed to death like what’s happening in Gaza.”

Egypt and Jordan, as well as other Arab nations, have flatly rejected calls by Trump to relocate the territory's 2.3 million Palestinians during post-war rebuilding of the territory.

But senior administration officials continue to press the case for relocation of Palestinians on humanitarian grounds.

“To me, it is unfair to explain to Palestinians that they might be back in five years,” Trump’s Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, told reporters. “That’s just preposterous.”

The Israeli prime minister is also facing competing pressure from his right-wing coalition to end a temporary truce against Hamas militants in Gaza and from war-weary Israelis who want the remaining hostages home and for the 15-month conflict to end. Trump, meanwhile, stays reserved about the long-term prospects for the truce,

“I have no guarantees that the peace is going to hold," Trump told reporters on Monday.

Since returning to office, Trump has called for relocating Palestinians from Gaza to neighbouring Egypt and Jordan, even as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Jordanian King Abdullah II have rejected it.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League have joined Egypt and Jordan in rejecting plans to move Palestinians out of their territories in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Trump insists he can persuade Egypt and Jordan to come around to accept displaced Palestinians because of the significant aid that the US provides Cairo and Amman. Hard-line right-wing members of Netanyahu’s government have embraced the call to move displaced Palestinians out of Gaza.

Israel has confirmed plans to send a delegation to Doha, Qatar, later this week for negotiations on implementing the next phase of the truce, which aims to secure hostage releases and outline steps toward ending the conflict.

Meanwhile, Hamas has also signaled readiness for talks, with mediation efforts led by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States.

The meeting marks Netanyahu’s first visit to the White House since Trump's return to office, underscoring the strength of US-Israel relations. However, Trump’s recent proposal to relocate Gazans has sparked controversy, with Egypt, Jordan, and Palestinian leaders rejecting the idea.

The truce, now in its 42-day first phase, has allowed hostage-prisoner exchanges and increased humanitarian aid to war-torn Gaza. However, unrest continues in the West Bank, where Israeli military operations have intensified.