President Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. would “take over the Gaza Strip” and “own it,” continuing to promote the idea that the Palestinian people should live elsewhere.
Mr. Trump, whose comments came at a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said the Palestinians in Gaza “should not go through a process of rebuilding” and that they had “lived a miserable existence there.” Earlier in the afternoon, during a meeting with Netanyahu in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump said the Palestinians should “resettle permanently” in “nice homes” somewhere else.
“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too,” Mr. Trump said. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings — level it out. Create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area. Do a real job. Do something different.”
“Just can’t go back,” he continued. “If you go back, it’s gonna end up the same way it has for a hundred years.”