US will take over the Gaza Strip, says President Trump

The US will take control of the Gaza strip, US President Donald Trump said Tuesday, during a press conference held with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

“The US will take over the Gaza strip, and we will do a job with it, too. 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.” 

The comments came in the wake of Netanyahu’s trip to the US, the first foreign leader to meet President Trump since he took office for the second time last month. 

Trump said that Gaza has been an unlucky place for a long time, and it should not go through a process of rebuilding and occupation by the same people that have fought for it, lived and died there. 

“Instead, we should go to other countries of interest, with humanitarian hearts. There are many of them that want to do this and build various domains that will ultimately be occupied by the 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza.”  

Trump made similar comments more than a week earlier when he said he wanted Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians from Gaza. Both nations spurned the suggestion, with Egyptian President adding that Egypt “cannot participate in the injustice of displacing the Palestinian people.”

During the press conference, Trump said that the initiative of relocating Palestinians could be paid for by neighbouring countries of great wealth.

“The only reason the Palestinians want to go back to Gaza is that they have no alternative. It’s right now a demolition site. Virtually every building is down."