Trump’s surprise announcement, at a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, upended that, as well as Trump’s own peace plan unveiled in 2019. That outlined Gaza as part of a Palestinian state and stressed that Palestinians would not be uprooted.
On Inauguration Day, Trump briefly entered real estate developer mode and called Gaza “a phenomenal location on the sea” that needed a rebuild.
Tuesday’s news conference indicated he was serious, as he vowed the U.S. would take “long-term ownership” of the enclave.
He advocated ousting Palestinians in Gaza from their homes, first suggesting this would be permanent and then indicating they would be allowed back.
“I don’t think people should be going back to Gaza,” he said, adding later that “Palestinians will live there. Many people will live there” — without explaining the apparent contradiction.
On Wednesday afternoon, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that while Trump believes the U.S. should be involved in the rebuilding of Gaza, its residents would be relocated temporarily.
Forcing people to relocate from their homes can constitute a violation of international law. Israel has been accused of such by senior United Nations officials and global watchdogs such as Human Rights Watch for its military campaign in the Gaza Strip following Hamas’ terrorist attack Oct. 7, 2023, in which Israeli officials say 1,200 people were killed and another 250 kidnapped.
Israel’s military campaign has left 47,500 Palestinians dead, according to local officials, though researchers have estimated that the death toll is likely much higher.
Trump’s comments come at a doubly precarious moment, with the U.S. helping negotiate the next stage of a ceasefire whose supporters hope will free the 79 remaining Israeli hostages, including 44 who are believed to be alive in exchange for Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons or detention.
A takeover and removal of Gaza’s population would be a grave contravention to international law, critics agreed.
“Trump’s proposal to push 2 million Palestinians out of Gaza and take ‘ownership’ by force if necessary is simply ethnic cleansing by another name,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said in a statement.
The idea of jettisoning Palestinians has previously been such a fringe, taboo idea that it has drawn widespread condemnation when mooted by far-right members of Netanyahu’s coalition.
Last month, under then-President Joe Biden, the State Department called this idea “inflammatory and irresponsible” when it was proposed by Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
The mere suggestion has painful historical echoes for Palestinians, 700,000 of whom were forcibly displaced from what became Israel during the 1948 “Nakba,” or catastrophe.
One saving grace for those opposed to Trump’s idea is that it is difficult to see how it might be implemented in the real world. The U.S. seizing control of the war-torn Gaza Strip, where Hamas fighters still operate, could likely require untold numbers of American troops deployed there, seemingly anathema to Trump’s opposition to foreign intervention.
The White House’s Leavitt also told reporters on Wednesday that U.S. involvement in the rebuilding of Gaza “does not mean boots on the ground.”
Whatever happens next, “it seems extremely improbable that the United States could take over Gaza within the confines of international law,” said Martti Koskenniemi, a professor of international law at University of Helsinki and former member of the United Nations’ International Law Commission.
To an international law expert with decades of experience, Trump “seems like a crazy man,” Koskenniemi said. “He’s not the first crazy man; there have been crazy men. But some of them are more powerful than others.”
The possibility that this may never happen has led some observers to wonder whether Trump might have different aims.
Trump’s comments could be “part of his extreme deal-making strategy that will lay the ground for broader Israeli-Saudi normalization talks,” Sanam Vakil, a director at the London think tank Chatham House said in an email. “He could be using this to pave the way to promote Saudi normalization in exchange for no annexation.”
Trump’s first-term brokered agreement between the Jewish state, the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco has given rise to the possibility of a similar agreement with Saudi Arabia.
That idea has been given short shrift by Saudi Arabia itself. The Foreign Ministry in Riyadh reiterated the kingdom’s “firm and unwavering” position that any Israel normalization would only come with the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Whether serious or not, most outside observers agree that Trump was making a full-throated statement of support for Netanyahu, relations with whom had become more distant under Biden.
The president “wants to show continued commitment to Israel to placate supporters and high-level donors in the United States,” Vakil said, as well as to “shore up Netanyahu’s fragile political balance of power” and help him in the next phase of ceasefire negotiations.
While Netanyahu visited the White House, he vowed to resume the war against Hamas in Gaza after the current ceasefire. Gerges believes Trump’s comments will help him do so.
“Benjamin Netanyahu is the happiest man in Israel today because he got exactly what he wanted,” he said. “Now he can go back to Israel and say: look, not only are we going to destroy Hamas, but Donald Trump wants the Palestinians out. We want to help him to bring about his visionary idea.”
NBC News has reached out to Netanyahu’s office for comment.
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