Donald Trump has restated his proposal to take over Gaza amid widespread opposition – even from his own supporters – saying the territory would be “turned over” to the US by Israel after it concludes its military offensive against Hamas.
Trump reinforced his commitment to the idea in a rambling post on his Truth Social network on Thursday, even as it emerged that the proposal – announced without warning during a White House visit by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister – was purely his own and had not been subject to detailed discussion with aides.
“The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting,” he wrote.
“The Palestinians … would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region. They would actually have a chance to be happy, safe, and free. No soldiers by the U.S. would be needed!”
The post was Trump’s response to broad condemnation of his original announcement on Tuesday, when he said the coastal territory could be turned into a “Riviera of the Middle East” after the 2.3 million Palestinians living there were left to live in other countries.
The suggestion produced shock waves across the Middle East and prompted a warning from the UN secretary general, António Guterres, against “any form of ethnic cleansing”. It also met resistance among the president’s “Make America Great Again” (Maga) base and Republican senators, some of whom stated bluntly that they would not go along with it.
Trump’s latest statement came after the White House appeared to hurriedly retreat from the idea under a hail of criticism. It emerged that Trump had discussed it with few aides before publicly announcing it, while no feasibility studies had been conducted by the state department or the Pentagon, as is customary with major foreign policy initiatives.
No working groups had been set up to examine details. Nor had studies been commissioned to assess how many US troops might need to be deployed to diffuse huge quantities of unexploded ordnance.
Defence officials, who may be called upon to occupy and secure the territory as it is rebuilt, said they first heard about the idea when Trump announced it. The Pentagon has received no formal request to draft a plan for troop deployment, the Wall Street Journal reported.
No consideration appeared to have been given over how to persuade the Palestinian population to move elsewhere. Amid accusations that the proposal amounted to an endorsement of “ethnic cleansing” and could constitute a war crime, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, issued a statement on Wednesday insisting that the relocation would be “temporary” – a qualification unlikely to appease the inhabitants of Gaza, many of whom are themselves descendants of displaced refugees.
Trump reportedly seized on the idea following a recent visit to Gaza by Steve Witkoff, his Middle East envoy and a billionaire property developer, who told him that it was “uninhabitable” after the large-scale destruction wreaked by Israel’s military bombardment.
The proposal contradicts his publicly stated opposition to US intervention in the Middle East, for which he has criticised past administrations.
While Republicans have publicly applauded Trump’s expansionist foreign policy aspirations since taking office – including proposals to buy Greenland and seize the Panama Canal – there is much less enthusiasm for an involvement in Gaza.
“We love the president, but our focus in the War Room is East Palestine, not Palestine,” Steve Bannon, his former aide and one of his most vocal cheerleaders, told his War Room podcast on Wednesday, referring to a town in Ohio that suffered a serious pollution outbreak following a 2023 accident involving a train carrying hazardous waste.
Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator for South Carolina and another Trump ally, said all his Senate colleagues opposed sending US troops to Gaza.
“All I can say is I want to destroy Hamas, but I’ve been on the phone with Arabs all day. That approach I think will be very problematic. The idea of Americans going in on the ground in Gaza is a nonstarter for every senator,” he said.
The Hill quoted another Republican senator – who requested anonymity to discuss the mood of his colleagues – as saying: “The concern is who’s responsibility is it to rebuild Gaza? I think the reaction of most Americans, me included, is ‘not ours’. I think that’s the bottom line.”
Daniel Shapiro, a former US ambassador to Israel under Barack Obama, said the idea was dangerous even if it was unlikely to reach fruition.
“The danger is that extremists within the Israeli government and terrorists of various stripes will take it literally and seriously, and start to act on it,” he told the New York Times. “It could imperil the further release of hostages, put a target on the back of US personnel and undercut prospects of a Saudi-Israel normalisation deal.”
Article by:Source: Robert Tait in Washington
