Trump Proposes US Takeover of Gaza, Suggests Removing Palestinians First

President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the United States intends to “take control” of Gaza once it has been cleared of most of its Palestinian residents, a statement that has ignited a wave of criticism and accusations of ethnic cleansing.

During a press conference alongside the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is currently a fugitive, Trump declared to journalists, “The U.S. will assume control over the Gaza Strip and handle it effectively.”

“We will take ownership and oversee the removal of all hazardous unexploded ordnance and other weaponry present, flatten the area, and eliminate the debris from destroyed structures—essentially leveling the ground to pave the way for economic development that will provide countless jobs and housing opportunities for local people,” Trump elaborated.

“We plan to develop it, generate tens of thousands of jobs, and turn it into a project the entire Middle East can take pride in,” he added, hinting at various proposals that have been made to construct exclusive Jewish beachfront communities on the ruins of Gaza.

Reinforcing his earlier January
call to relocate the majority of Gaza’s inhabitants to Egypt and Jordan—proposals that were firmly rejected by both nations—Trump expressed, “My hope is that we can create something truly beneficial, something so good that [Palestinians] wouldn’t wish to return.”

“Why would they want to return?” Trump questioned. “The place has been a living hell.”

In response to how many Palestinians should leave Gaza, Trump said “all of them,” referring to a number of 1.7-1.8 million Palestinians out of an estimated total population of about 2.3 million.

The forced relocation of a population by an occupying force constitutes a war crime under Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention—a statute that also deems Israel’s settlements in the occupied West Bank illegal.

“I don’t believe people should return to Gaza,” Trump continued. “It’s not suitable for habitation, and the only reason they want to return, I firmly believe, is because they lack alternatives. If they had another option, they would prefer not to return to Gaza and instead live in a wonderful, safe alternative.”

When asked if he would deploy U.S. military forces to Gaza, Trump mentioned, “we’ll do whatever is necessary. If needed, we will act.”

Palestinian Ambassador to the U.N. Riyad Mansour affirmed, “our home and our country is the Gaza Strip.”

“It is a part of Palestine,” he emphasized. “Our homeland is our homeland.”

In his remarks, Netanyahu praised Trump’s “courage to challenge conventional thought” and his support for Israel.

“[Trump] envisions a different future for that land which has been the center of so much terrorism, numerous attacks against us, and countless hardships,” Netanyahu said while standing next to the American leader. “He has a fresh perspective, and I think it deserves attention. We are discussing it. He’s exploring it with his team, with his staff.”

“I believe it’s an approach that could alter history,” Netanyahu added, “and it truly merits exploration.”

Amidst a delicate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, where over 15 months of Israeli attacks, invasions, and blockades have resulted in more than 170,000 Palestinians killed, injured, or missing and over 2 million displaced, starved, or afflicted, according to local and international sources.

Many Israeli leaders have
supported the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza and the Jewish resettlement of the coastal area, most of whose residents are descendants of Palestinians forcibly removed from other regions of Palestine during the creation of the state of Israel in the late 1940s. Palestinians expelled during what they refer to as the Nakba, or catastrophe, have been denied their U.N.-guaranteed right to return to their lands.

Last November, the former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon
admitted that the ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza was in progress. Other Israeli political and military figures have indicated that the so-called “Generals’ Plan”—a strategy to starve and ethnically cleanse Palestinians from northern Gaza—was effectively being implemented.

Palestinian-American journalist Ramzy Baroud reacted to Trump’s statements in a video posted on social media Tuesday.

“Now, you might say, ‘Hold on, Trump appears truly determined to ethnically cleanse Palestinians, and this topic is back on the agenda,'” Baroud remarked. “But whose agenda? Certainly not that of the Palestinian people.”

Earlier that day, Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and continuing the suspension of funding for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which Israel has baselessly
accused of being a terrorist organization.

A fact sheet
seen by various media outlets stated that the White House claims the UNHRC “has failed to serve its purpose and continues to act as a shield for nations committing grave human rights abuses.”

“The UNHRC has shown persistent bias against Israel, unfairly and disproportionately focusing on it in council proceedings,” the White House added. “In 2018, the year President Trump initially withdrew from the UNHRC during his first term, the council passed more resolutions condemning Israel than it did against Syria, Iran, and North Korea combined.”

UNHRC spokesperson Pascal Sim
noted on Tuesday that the U.S. has been an observer state, not a UNHRC member, since January 1, and according to U.N. rules, it cannot “technically withdraw from an intergovernmental body that it is no longer a part of.”

The suspension of UNRWA funding is based on Israeli allegations—reportedly obtained from Palestinian detainees under a torture-heavy interrogation regime—that a dozen of the agency’s over 13,000 employees in Gaza were involved in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack. These claims led several countries, including the United States, to halt funding for UNRWA last year. The U.S. had been UNRWA’s largest donor, contributing $300-400 million annually to the critical aid organization.

UNRWA
terminated nine employees in response to Israel’s claim, despite admitting there was no evidence linking these staffers to the October 7 incident. Faced with this lack of proof, the European Union and countries such as Japan, Germany, Canada, and Australia reinstated their funding for UNRWA. Last March, then-U.S. President Joe Biden signed a bill that prohibited American funding for the agency.

Israeli authorities have also
prohibited UNRWA from operating within Israel, significantly impairing the agency’s ability to fulfill its mission across Palestine, including in Gaza and the illegally occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

According to the latest
UNRWA situation report, at least 272 of the agency’s workers have been killed by Israeli forces, which have bombed numerous schools, shelters, and other facilities utilized by the agency since October 2023.

William Deere, the director of UNRWA’s Washington, D.C. office,
informedPBS earlier this week that “there is no alternative to UNRWA.”

“UNRWA fulfills a unique role within the U.N. system,” Deere stated. “We operate… a healthcare network, an education system, we provide relief and social services.”

As U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres
mentioned last month, “UNRWA has been conducting activities in the occupied Palestinian territory for over 70 years… and has thus accumulated unparalleled experience in delivering assistance specifically tailored to the needs of Palestine refugees.”

Trump’s executive order came prior to his meeting with Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court after it
issued arrest warrants for him and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, last November for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. The tribunal also issued a warrant for Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri.

The U.S. president’s initiatives also followed his January
halt on foreign aid to all countries except for Israel and Egypt, and his plan to shut down the United States Agency for International Development.