Trump Says U.S. Wants to Take Over Gaza Strip

(Reuters) – President Donald Trump said the U.S. would take over the war-ravaged Gaza Strip and develop it economically after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere, actions that would shatter decades of U.S. policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Trump unveiled his surprise plan, without providing specifics, at a joint press conference on Tuesday with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The announcement followed Trump’s shock proposal earlier on Tuesday for the permanent resettlement of the more than two million Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring countries, calling the enclave – where the first phase of a fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage release deal is in effect – a “demolition site.”

Trump can expect allies and foes alike to strongly oppose any U.S. takeover of Gaza, and his proposal raises questions whether Middle East power Saudi Arabia would be willing to join a renewed U.S.-brokered push for a historic normalization of relations with U.S. ally Israel.

The U.S. taking a direct stake in Gaza would run counter to longtime policy in Washington and for much of the international community, which has held that Gaza would be part of a future Palestinian state that includes the occupied West Bank.

“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Trump told reporters. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site.”

“We’re going to develop it, create thousands and thousands of jobs, and it’ll be something that the entire Middle East can be very proud of,” Trump said. “I do see a long-term ownership position and I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East.”

Trump did not directly respond to a question of how and under what authority the U.S. can take over and occupy Gaza, a coastal strip 25 miles (45 km) long and at most 6 miles (10 km) wide, with a violent history. Successive U.S. administrations, including Trump in his first term, had avoided deploying U.S. troops there.

Several Democratic lawmakers quickly condemned the Republican president’s Gaza proposals.