Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump have discussed the countries that may be open to accepting Palestinians as part of their ethnic cleansing plan of the Gaza Strip.
During a visit to Washington, Netanyahu told reporters in the White House that the pair had discussed Trump's "bold vision" to resettle much of Palestine's population, which the Israeli leader has previously referred to as “voluntary emigration” but is actually a clear case of ethnic cleansing.
Palestinians have rejected Trump’s proposal to resettle much of its population elsewhere, viewing it as expulsion from their homeland after Israel’s offensive left much of it uninhabitable, and human rights experts say implementing the plan would be likely to violate international law.
Last week, Netanyahu announced that Israel is establishing a new "security corridor" across Gaza, as the country said it planned to seize large areas of the Palestinian territory.
Netanyahu also said his team is working on a deal with the US to get more captives out of Gaza.
When asked about fighting in Gaza and Israel blocking humanitarian aid, Trump said: "Well, you know how I feel about the Gaza strip. I think it's an incredible piece of important real estate. And I think it is something that we would be involved in, but you know, having a peace force like the United States there, controlling and owning the Gaza strip - it would be a good thing.
"Because right now, and all it has been for years and years, all I hear about is killing and Hamas and problems.
"If you take the people and move them around to different countries, and you have plenty of countries that will do that, then you really have a freedom zone, you call it the freedom zone.
"A free zone, a zone where people aren't going to be killed every day. That's a hell of a place. You know what I call it? A great location that nobody wants to live in, because they really don't."
Trump added: "The level of death on the Gaza Strip is just incredible, and I've said it, I don't understand why Israel ever gave it up.
"Israel owned it, and it wasn't this man so I can say it. He [Netanyahu] wouldn't have given it up. I know him very well. There's no way.
"They took ocean front property, and they gave it to people for peace, how did that work out? Not good."
Reporters asked if the "Trump plan" for "immigration" in Gaza was still on the agenda, to which Netanyahu said: "I think what the president talked about was to give people a choice. Gazans were closed in, and in any other place - including in arenas of battle, whether it's Ukraine of Syria or any other place, people could leave.
"Gaza was the only place where they locked them in, we didn't lock them in. They were locked in, and what is wrong about giving people a choice?"
He added: "We've been talking about some countries, I won't go into them right now, that are saying 'if Gazans want to leave, we want to take them in' and I think this is the right thing to do.
"It's going to take years to rebuild Gaza and in the meantime, people can have an option. The president has a vision and countries are responding to that vision. We're working on it."
The Israeli Prime Minister became the first foreign leader to visit Trump since he unleashed tariffs on countries around the world.
Whether Netanyahu’s visit succeeds in bringing down or eliminating Israel’s tariffs remains to be seen, but how it plays out could set the stage for how other world leaders try to address the new tariffs.
Trump greeted the Israeli prime minister with a firm handshake as he arrived for talks in Washington, while ignoring shouted questions from reporters about the tumbling global markets and whether he would lift tariffs on Israel.
The Israeli PM's office has put the focus of his hastily organised Washington visit on the tariffs, while stressing that the two leaders will discuss major geopolitical issues including the war in Gaza, tensions with Iran, Israel-Turkey ties and the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant against the Israeli leader last year.
Trump in February signed an executive order imposing sanctions on the ICC over its investigations of Israel.
Ahead of his meeting with Netanyahu, Trump held a call with French President Emmanuel Macron, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II. All three leaders have been key interlocutors in efforts to reduce tensions in the Middle East and bring an end to the Israel-Hamas war.
Trump also said the US will hold direct talks with Iran starting on Saturday and insisted that Tehran cannot get nuclear weapons.
The engagement was organised by Macron, according to a French government official who was not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Netanyahu soon after arriving in Washington on Sunday evening met senior Trump administration officials, commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and US trade representative Jameson Greer, to discuss the tariffs. And on Monday, Netanyahu met Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, ahead of his sit down with the president.
Eytan Gilboa, an expert on US-Israel relations, said he expected Trump to use the tariffs as leverage to force concessions from Netanyahu.
In Israel’s case, those concessions might not be economic. Trump may pressure Netanyahu to move toward ending the war in Gaza — at the very least through some interim truce with Hamas that would pause the fighting and free more hostages.
Gilboa said Trump is hoping to return from his first overseas trip — expected next month to Saudi Arabia — with some movement on a deal to normalise relations with Israel, which would likely require significant Israeli concessions on Gaza.
If he does manage to move toward bolstering ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, that would act as a regional diplomatic counterweight to pressure Iran, against which Trump has threatened new sanctions and suggested military action over its nuclear programme.
In a pre-emptive move last week, Israel announced that it was removing all tariffs on goods from the US, mostly on imported food and agricultural products, according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office.
The statement did not mention Trump’s impending tariffs, which were announced the following day, but said Israel’s step would bolster ties with its largest trading partner, the United States. Israel is not a major trading partner of the US.
But the tactic failed, and with a 17% rate, Israel was just one of dozens of countries that were slapped with tariffs on Trump’s so-called Liberation Day last week.
Although Israel is a tiny market for US products, the United States is a key trade partner of Israel. Much of that trade is for high-tech services, which are not directly affected by the tariffs, but key Israeli industries could be impacted.
The Manufacturers Association of Israel estimates that the tariffs will cost Israel about three billion dollars (£2.35 billion) in exports each year and lead to the loss of 26,000 jobs in industries that include biotechnology, chemicals, plastics and electronics.
