Trump-Netanyahu press conference: Trump: US will ‘take over’ Gaza, ‘own’ it, develop it, then make it an ‘international’ area
In comments shocking the entire press corps, US President Donald Trump says he wants the US to “take over” Gaza and “own” the Strip, in order to rebuild the coastal enclave after it was leveled, in the nearly 16 months of a devastating war between Israel and Hamas militants.
Trump says during a press conference alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
Quote
The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too.
We’ll love it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous bombs and other weapons on the site… and get rid of the destroyed buildings [and] create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing,”
He doesn’t specify who, those jobs will be for, given that he is also calling for all Palestinians to be removed from Gaza.
Trump later clarifies that the “world’s people” will be the ones to live in Gaza once the US finishes rebuilding it. He says the Palestinians can be among them, adding that it will be an “international” area.
Trump calls the Gaza Strip a “symbol of death and destruction” for many decades and an “unlucky” place.
He reiterates his belief that Palestinians should be removed from the “hell hole” of Gaza, but this time makes the statement while reading from prepared remarks, further indicating that this has become the administration’s official policy and not an off-the-cuff idea.
Trump says: 1. Gaza should not go through a process of rebuilding and occupation by the same people that … lived a miserable existence there 2. Trump says Gaza’s population of roughly 1.8 million people should be transferred to countries “of interest with humanitarian hearts"
Trump claims: 1. There are many of them that want to do this, 2. one or multiple countries could take in Palestinians from Gaza. 3. the rebuilding of Gaza could be “paid for by neighboring countries of great wealth.”
