In the interview, Trump spoke of a “property closure for the future”. “I would own him,” he said with a view of the Gaza Strip. In the future, the Palestinians could live in up to six different locations outside the Gaza Strip. “In other words, I’m talking about building a permanent place for you, because if you had to come back now, it would take years before you ever – it is not habitable.”
The United States would build “pretty communities” elsewhere for around two million residents of the Gaza Strip, Trump said in the FOX interview. There could be “five, six or two”. “But we will build safe communities, a little further away from where they are, where all this danger is.” “Consider it as a property closure for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land. No big expenses.”
Trump had said last week during a visit to the Israeli head of government Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington that the United States “wanted to take control of the Gaza Strip in the long term”. He announced a vision of the currently bombed coastal strip as the future “Riviera of the Middle East”.
At the same time, the US president made it clear that the reconstruction of the Gaza strip destroyed by the war between Israel and the radical Islamic Hamas should take place without its previous residents. The more than two million Palestinians who have their homes in the Gaza Strip are to be relocated to other countries such as Egypt and Jordan.
The announcement triggered international outrage. Numerous Arab countries, the United Nations and the United States allied the plans as sharply as Palestinian representatives. Chancellor Olaf Scholz described the plan on Sunday as “scandal”. “The resettlement of the population is not acceptable and against international law,” criticized the Chancellor.
For February 27, Egypt appointed an “urgency” summit of Arab states to the “latest serious developments” with regard to the Palestinian areas.
The Israeli head of government, on the other hand, described the advance of the US President triumphantly as “revolutionary” after his return from Washington. Netanyahu was reportedly informed about the plan shortly before Trump’s announcement.
“President Trump came with a completely different, much better vision for Israel – a revolutionary, creative approach that we are currently discussing,” said Netanyahu on Sunday at a cabinet meeting. Trump is “very determined” to implement the plan, “and I think he opens up many, many options,” said the Israeli Prime Minister.
Trump’s plan also endangers the current six -week ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and the chance of the planned second phase of the agreement. In this phase, Hamas and allied groups with it should hand over all remaining hostages to Israel. In addition, a final end to the Gaza war that started 16 months ago is to be reached. The third phase should be about the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.
In the interview, Trump confirmed that he could move Egypt and Jordan, both recipients of extensive US military aids, to take the Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. “I think I could achieve a deal with Jordan. I think I could achieve a deal with Egypt. We give you billions of dollars a year,” he said Fox News.
Last year Trump said that the Gaza Strip was “like Monaco”. His son -in -law Jared Kushner had suggested that Israel could free the Gaza Strip of civilians to open up “bank property”.
The interview with FOX news journalist Bret Baier was to be broadcast on Monday evening (local time). A first part had already been sent on Sunday.
