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Donald Trump said the Gaza Strip would be turned over to the US by Israel only after fighting had ceased in the war-torn Palestinian territory and that no American troops would be needed to maintain stability.
The US president made his latest announcement about the proposal to take over Gaza on Thursday, a day after allies at home, in the Middle East and Europe had objected to his plans and the White House sought to assuage fears of a protracted military intervention.
“The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform. He added that the Palestinian people “would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region”.
He said the US, working with 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”.
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Trump’s announcement on Tuesday that the US would take over Gaza and use force if needed sparked uproar in the Arab world, with officials from across the region warning that any forced displacement of Palestinians would breach international law and fuel regional instability.
It also drew criticism from some of Trump’s domestic allies, with some Republicans saying it strayed from his “America First” agenda and his long-standing objection to US intervention in “endless” foreign wars.
“I thought we voted for America First,” said Rand Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky, on Wednesday. “We have no business contemplating yet another occupation to doom our treasure and spill our soldiers’ blood.”
But Israeli officials welcomed the idea, with defence minister Israel Katz saying on Thursday morning that he had ordered the military to prepare a plan that would allow Gazans to leave “voluntarily”. Katz said this would include options for exit by land, sea and air, but gave no further details.
Katz’s comments drew an angry response from Egypt, with the foreign ministry warning that “irresponsible” statements by Israeli officials could have “catastrophic consequences . . . weakening negotiations on a ceasefire agreement [in Gaza] and inciting a return to fighting”.
In an apparent reference to Cairo’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel, the ministry added that such moves posed a threat to the whole region and to the “basis of peace” within it.
Trump’s announcement came as Israel and Hamas were due to begin talks about moving to the second phase of a fragile, US-led deal that halted the devastating war in Gaza after 15 months of fighting and began the release of the hostages still held by Hamas in the enclave.
Under the terms of the deal, which took effect almost three weeks ago, Hamas is set to release a total of 33 hostages by early March in exchange for freeing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
In the second phase, the details of which still have to be agreed, Hamas is meant to release all remaining living hostages in return for the release of hundreds more Palestinian prisoners, the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and a permanent end to the fighting.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under pressure from far-right members of his coalition to resume the war, vowed this week that Israel would resume fighting to destroy Hamas. The militant group has reasserted control over parts of the strip since the fighting stopped.
EU foreign affairs spokesperson Anouar El Anouni said on Thursday that, while the three-week-old truce was a “positive development”, it was crucial for “the next steps to be taken to bring a permanent end to hostilities and stability and peace to the region”.
Additional reporting by Jonathan Wheatley in London and Laura Dubois in Brussels. Cartography by Aditi Bhandari
