President Donald Trump, speaking at a White House news conference Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, announced that the U.S. would seek ownership of the war-torn Gaza Strip after saying Palestinians have no choice but to leave their homes there.
"We'll own it," Trump said of Gaza. "We're going to take over that piece, develop it and create thousands and thousands of jobs, and it will be something the entire Middle East can be proud of," he said, adding that a “long-term ownership position” by the U.S. 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.
The president did not answer questions about the legality of essentially taking over a sovereign territory.
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.”
During Netanyahu's visit, Trump repeatedly called Gaza a "demolition site" and said that the Palestinians who are living there should be relocated, claiming they would be “thrilled” to live elsewhere and are only staying because they have "no alternative."
"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.
Trump said the approximately 1.8 million Palestinians should be moved to a new site or sites in other Arab countries, such as Egypt or Jordan, where they can "live in peace."
"They say they’re not going to accept" them, Trump said of Egypt and Jordan. "I say they will, but I think other countries will accept also."
Trump said that Palestinians going to a new land "would be a lot better than going back to Gaza, which has had decades and decades of death."
"They'll be resettled in areas where they can live a beautiful life," he said.
Asked whether that would mean forcibly displacing people, Trump said, "I don't think so."
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 was Trump's first with a foreign leader since the start of his second term.
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.
Before the meeting, 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 Tuesday's bilateral 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.
