WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Gaza would be “turned over” by Israel to the United States when the conflict is over, and no soldiers would be needed for his subsequent takeover and redevelopment plan.

Trump doubled down on the shock plan he first announced on Tuesday — and on his plan to resettle two million Palestinians elsewhere from Gaza in the Middle East — on his Truth Social network.

“The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting,” Trump said in an early morning post. “No soldiers by the US would be needed! Stability for the region would reign!!!”

Trump stunned the world by announcing during a joint press conference with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Tuesday that “the US will take over the Gaza Strip”.

Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the idea “was not meant to be hostile,” while the White House said there was no commitment to sending US troops and that any displacement of Palestinians would be “temporary”.

Trump, however, showed on Thursday that he still wanted to press ahead with the plan as he had originally announced it, including the mass displacement of Palestinians.

Trump said that by the time of his planned handover by Israel to the United States Palestinians “would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region”.

“The US, working with great development teams from all over the World, would slowly and carefully begin the construction of what would become one of the greatest and most spectacular developments of its kind on Earth.”

‘Voluntary’ departures

Israel’s defence minister ordered the army on Thursday to prepare for “voluntary” departures from Gaza, after US President Donald Trump proposed moving Palestinians out of the territory.

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had instructed the military to formulate a plan for Palestinians to leave Gaza, which has been ravaged by more than a year of war.

The UN warned any forced displacement of Palestinians would be “tantamount to ethnic cleansing”.

Netanyahu suggested Palestinians would not necessarily leave permanently. “They can leave, they can then come back, they can relocate and come back, but you have to rebuild Gaza.”

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2025