Donald Trump says the US is “looking at another ceasefire” after Israel shattered a two-month truce with Hamas by launching some of its deadliest strikes last month.
Speaking alongside Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday, Trump also said he didn’t “understand why Israel ever gave up” control of Gaza, which the US president described as “an incredible piece of important real estate”.
Repeating his extraordinary claim that the United States should take ownership of Gaza and that Palestinians could be “moved around to other countries”, the US president claimed the war-torn Strip could then be renamed the “Freedom Zone”.
United Nations officials have warned that such a move could amount to ethnic cleansing, and draw heavy parallels with the Nakba – meaning “catastrophe” – in which Palestinians were forced from their land in 1948.
Asked in the Oval Office by a Times of Israel reporter whether he believed Israel’s renewed offensive and blocking humanitarian aid to Palestinians was an effective way of pressuring Hamas into a deal, Mr Trump said: “You know how I feel about the Gaza Strip – I think it’s an incredible piece of important real estate.”
Officials in Gaza say more than 50,000 people have been killed there since Hamas sparked the war with its attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostage.
Mr Trump continued: “Having a peace force like the United States there, controlling and owning the Gaza Strip would be a good thing, because right now all it is for years and years, all I hear about is killing and Hamas and problems.
“If you take the people, the Palestinians, and move them around to different countries – and you have plenty of countries that will do that... you call it the Freedom Zone, a free zone – where people aren’t going to be killed every day. That’s a hell of a place.”
Claiming Gaza is “a great location that nobody wants to live in”, the US president added: “I've said it, I don't understand why Israel ever gave it up. Israel owned it.”
In a nod to Mr Netanyahu, Mr Trump continued: “It wasn’t this man. So I can say it – he wouldn’t have given it up. I know him very well. There’s no way they took oceanfront property and they gave it to people for peace. How did that work out? Not good.”
Following the 1948 Middle East war, Gaza was controlled by Egypt until being seized by Israel in the 1967 war, which placed the Strip’s Palestinian population under military rule.
But in 2005, Israel withdrew its troops and disbanded its settlements in Gaza, following an uprising against Israeli occupation known as the Second Intifada. However, Israel retained tight control over Gaza’s borders and airspace, meaning it is still judged by the UN to be occupied by Israel.
Speaking in the White House on Monday, Mr Netanyahu – who has tightly controlled vital supplies of food, water and aid into Gaza both prior to and during the war – said Mr Trump wanted “to give people a choice” in Gaza.
“Gazans were closed in. Every other place, including in arenas of battle – whether it’s Ukraine or Syria or any other place – people could leave. Gaza was the only place where they locked them in,” Mr Netanyahu said, claiming: “We didn’t lock them in.”
Mr Netanyahu claimed he and Mr Trump had discussed countries which “want to take” refugees from Gaza, adding: “This is the right thing to do. It’s going to take years to rebuild Gaza. In the meantime, people can have an option.”
The Egyptian presidency said on Monday that the leaders of Egypt, France and Jordan held a phone call with Mr Trump on Monday to discuss the need to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and release hostages.
Israeli troops could be seen clearing ground and building watch towers on Monday in parts of Gaza they have seized in recent days in a renewed offensive that the United Nations says has already captured or depopulated two-thirds of the enclave.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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