“This is the first good idea that I’ve heard,” Netanyahu said during a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity. “It’s a remarkable idea, and I think it should be really pursued, examined, and done because I think it will create a different future for everyone.”
On Tuesday night, Trump proposed that the United States take over the Gaza Strip in an effort to rebuild it.
“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip and do a job with it too. We’ll own it,” Trump announced next to Netanyahu, during his first White House joint press conference with a foreign leader of his second term.
When asked whether he’d deploy U.S. troops to transform the 140-square-mile Palestinian territory, Trump said, “We’ll do what is necessary.”
“It is the buildings that could tip over at any moment,” Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy who recently visited Gaza, told reporters on Tuesday. “There’s no utilities there whatsoever, no working water, electric, gas, nothing. God knows what kind of disease might be festering there, so when the president talks about cleaning it out, he talks about making it habitable. And this is a long-range plan.”
Trump’s plans to rebuild Gaza would mean that roughly two million Palestinians would have to be relocated to neighboring countries, which has sparked backlash from Palestinians living in the region and others.
“We came very close to dying, but we survived with the grace of God,” Gazan resident Moeen Mohsen told CBS News reporters in Gaza. “Unfortunately, there came a decision to displace us. We reject it in its entirety. We are still holding on to our right to live.”
Leaders from Egypt and Jordan have already rejected Trump’s request for them to take in Palestinians. There is also concern from others that moving Palestinians out of Gaza could upset Hamas and disrupt the cease-fire and hostage release agreement.
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During Wednesday’s interview, Netanyahu celebrated Trump’s influence on the Middle East overall since entering the Oval Office for the second time, specifically pointing to his opposition to Iran.
“Trump’s entry into the White House gives enormous, I’d say, backing to those who wish to see Iran’s aggression rolled back, Iran never having a nuclear weapon, and that affects the entire region,” Netanyahu said on Hannity. “It elevates the spirit of Israelis. It elevates the spirit of all those who want to see a different Middle East, a prosperous and peaceful Middle East.”
