President Donald Trump said at an Oval Office meeting Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Palestinians had "no alternative" but to leave their homes in Gaza — and later said the U.S. could take control of the strip.
"The whole thing is a mess," Trump said of Gaza, which has been devastated by the Israel-Hamas war.
"I don't think people should be going back to Gaza. I think that Gaza has been very unlucky for them. They've lived like hell; they've lived like you're living in hell. Gaza is not a place for people to be living. The only reason they want to go back, and I believe this strongly, is they have no alternative. What's the alternative? Go where? If they had an alternative, they'd much rather not go back to Gaza and live in a beautiful alternative that's safe," he said.
Speaking alongside Netanyahu at a press conference Tuesday evening, Trump said, "the U.S. 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, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings. Level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area."
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Trump said the "long-term ownership position" would bring "great stability to the Middle East."
Asked who would live there, Trump said, "I envision the world people living there, the world’s people. You’ll make that into an international unbelievable place. I think the potential in the Gaza strip is unbelievable," and it could be "the riviera of the Middle East."
"Palestinians will live there. Many people will live there," he added.
Netanyahu said one of his goals is to make sure Gaza never poses a threat to Israel again, and that "Trump sees a different future for that piece of land."
"We’re talking about it," Netanyahu said of Trump's Gaza Strip suggestion. "I think it’s something that could change history and it worthwhile really pursuing this avenue."
Earlier in the day, Trump called Gaza a "demolition site" and saying its inhabitants would be "thrilled" to live elsewhere.
"I don't how they could want to stay," he said, adding that going to a new piece of land "would be a lot better than going back to Gaza, which has had decades and decades of death."
Asked whether that would mean forcibly displacing people, Trump said: "I don't think so. I think if they had the opportunity, if they had an alternative — they have no alternative right now. They're there because they have no alternative. What do they have? It's a big pile of rubble right now. Who can live like that?"
"I think they'd be thrilled to do it," he said, adding that right now, "they don't have an option."
Trump said he believes the Palestinians would be better off moving to neighboring Egypt or Jordan, a proposal the countries and others in the area have already rejected. “I think they should get a good, fresh, beautiful piece of land,” he said of the Palestinians. “The Gaza thing has not worked.”
A spokesman for Hamas, Sami Abu Zuhri, blasted Trump’s remarks, saying, “We consider it a recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region.”
“Our people in the Gaza Strip will not allow these plans to pass, and what is required is to end the occupation and aggression against our people, not expel them from their land,” he said.
The meeting with Netanyahu is Trump's first with a foreign leader since the start of his second term.
“He’s here to see me, and I’m here to listen,” Trump told reporters.
Trump previewed the discussion at the White House as a "very big meeting" when he was speaking to reporters Sunday. In his letter inviting Netanyahu to Washington last week, he wrote, “I look forward to discussing how we can bring peace to Israel and its neighbors, and efforts to counter our shared adversaries.”
Netanyahu said Sunday that they would discuss "the critical issues that lie ahead of us — defeating Hamas, returning all our hostages and dealing with the Iranian axis in all its components, an axis that also threatens Israel’s security, the Middle East and the entire world."
Trump's transition team helped the Biden administration secure a ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas. The next phase of the agreement was expected to be one of the topics discussed Tuesday.
The conflict began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a terrorist attack on Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage. Israel retaliated with an air and land assault on Gaza, killing more than 47,000 people, most of them civilians, according to local officials. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced.
The scale of Israeli counteroffensive has led to international condemnation, but Netanyahu has defended his actions, most recently en route to Washington.
"The decisions we have made during the war, combined with the heroism of the IDF soldiers, they have already changed the face of the Middle East. They have changed it beyond recognition. I think that by working hard with President Trump, we can change it even more, for the better," he said.
Trump had said he wants Jordan and Egypt to accept more Palestinian refugees as part of an effort to “clean out” Gaza.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the meeting, Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, said Trump was referring to making the area "habitable." He also said the five-year timeline to rebuild Gaza in a future phase of the ceasefire deal was unrealistic and "preposterous." National security adviser Mike Waltz said rebuilding would be likely to take up to 15 years.
Witkoff said: "There’s 30,000 unexploded munitions" in Gaza. It is the buildings that could tip over at any moment. There’s no utilities there whatsoever, no, no working water, electric, gas, nothing. God knows what kind of disease might be festering there."
Netanyahu and Trump were close allies during Trump's first term, but their relationship became strained after Netanyahu congratulated Joe Biden on winning the 2020 election while Trump was still challenging the results.
Just days after the Oct. 7 attack, Trump told a crowd at a campaign rally that Netanyahu had “let us down” during his first administration, arguing that he had been unhelpful before the United States killed a top Iranian general. That led to criticism from his Republican rivals, and Trump later posted on social media, “#IStandWithIsrael” and “#IStandWithBibi,” using Netanyahu's nickname.
Their relationship appeared mended in July when Netanyahu visited Trump at his Florida residence after having met with Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and after a failed attempt on Trump's life.
Netanyahu said Sunday that the "fact that this will be [Trump's] first meeting with a foreign leader since his inauguration has great significance for the state of Israel" and "testifies to the strength of the alliance between Israel and the United States."
Asked Tuesday how his relationship is with Netanyahu now after the ups and downs, Trump said, "Mostly ups."
The trip is far from Netanyahu's first trip to the White House.
When he was welcomed Monday at Blair House, the historic official guest residence of the White House, its director said it was Netanyahu's 14th visit to the residence — many more than any other foreign leader has made since it was built in the 19th century.
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