Published: 6 February 2025
Last updated: 6 February 2025
At a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Tuesday, President Donald Trump declared that the US “will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too.”
He did not rule out using US soldiers to redevelop the area. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site,” he said. “Level the site, get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, and create economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area. Do a real job, do something different.”
Trump has also supported resettling Palestinians from Gaza in places where they could live without fear of violence, saying that he and his team have discussed with Jordan, Egypt, and other regional countries.
His plan shocked the world and has already drawn opposition from Europe, Russia, China, and others. Here are our key takeaways from the plan and its aftermath:
The plan is not realistic
Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen from Axios describe the massive obstacles to Trump’s vision:
- The human toll: Two million Palestinians call Gaza home and have not consented to being forced out of their territory, despite the colossal destruction from 16 months of war.
- Opposition from regional leaders: The leaders of Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia have vehemently rejected Trump’s proposal.
- Contradictions in US policy: Trump campaigned on ending foreign wars but left the door open to sending US troops to Gaza “if necessary.”
- Concerns among Republicans: Trump’s "America First" allies in the Republican Party are privately sceptical, especially as his administration is actively dismantling USAID for using taxpayer dollars overseas.
The plan will not be acceptable to Palestinians, Egyptian and Jordanians, writes Lazar Berman in The Times of Israel. “Gazans, who survived 15 months of punishing attacks by Israel, largely don’t want to live in exile, and Trump isn’t going to send US troops to push almost two million people out of the Strip. Nor will Egypt and Jordan go along with it, despite Trump’s confidence that their reliance on US aid and military support gives him enough leverage to push them to take in massive numbers of Gazan refugees. For both countries, Trump’s proposal crosses red lines.”
Dan Perry in Forward adds that the plan will exacerbate the narrative of Palestinian expulsion and victimisation.
The truth is that permanently displacing a significant number of Palestinians from Gaza — or any part of Palestinian territory — would almost certainly create more problems than it solves..The idea is not only unrealistic, but also dangerously destabilizing."
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Behind the Curtain: Trump's wild Middle East vision (Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, Axios)
Trump’s Gaza plan won’t happen, but it could certainly shake up the region (Lazar Berman, The Times of Israel)
The plan may be illegal
Tamer Morris, a senior lecturer in International Law at the University of Sydney, outlines three main legal barriers to the plan:
The US cannot simply take over another territory
“Since the end of the Second World War in 1945, the use of force has been prohibited under international law. This is one of the foundations of international law since the creation of the United Nations. The US could only take control of Gaza with the consent of the sovereign authority of the territory. Israel cannot cede Gaza to the US. The International Court of Justice has ruled that Gaza is an occupied territory—and that this occupation is illegal under international law. So, for this to happen legally, Trump would require the consent of Palestine and the Palestinian people to take control of Gaza.”
Occupation laws prohibit forced displacement
“One of the biggest obligations of an occupying power comes under Article 49 of the Geneva Conventions, which prohibits an occupying power from forcibly transferring or removing people from a territory. While occupying powers may temporarily remove a population for safety reasons, they must allow them to return once conditions permit.”
Voluntary resettlement requires full consent
Transferring a population must be consensual. But in this case, it would require the consent of all Palestinians in Gaza. The US cannot force anyone to move who does not want to. Further to this, a government—such as the Palestinian Authority—cannot give this consent on behalf of a people. People have a right to self-determination—the right to determine their own future.
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Trump wants the US to ‘take over’ Gaza and relocate the people. Is this legal? (Tamer Morris, The Conversation)
Trump's Gaza plan will be seen as flying in face of international law (BBC)
Palestinian leadership and Arab nations reject the plan
The Palestinian Authority called Trump’s proposal a "serious violation of international law." "President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian leadership expressed their strong rejection of calls to seize the Gaza Strip and displace Palestinians outside their homeland," the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported. An official from Hamas called Trump’s proposal "ridiculous and absurd."
Palestinians in Gaza also reacted with shock, anxiety, and outrage. Muatasim Yassin, a 42-year-old social worker from Gaza City, told Haaretz that "Trump sees us [Gazans] as stumbling blocks to his fantasy. Families in Gaza have lost everything while trying to maintain the land." Yasmin Salah, speaking to the ABC, said "Where is our decision? Where is the UN Security Council? Where is the democracy they talk about?"
Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and the Arab League have all rejected the idea of relocating Gazans to other countries.
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Middle East leaders, Palestinians respond to Donald Trump's Gaza plan (ABC)
'For Trump, we are a real estate project': Palestinians from Gaza outraged With US takeover plan (Haaretz)
Trump's 'Gaza Strip plan': How the Middle East leaders reacted (9 News)
Trump's plan is a win for Netanyahu
A Channel 13 News poll published on Wednesday found that 72% of Israelis support Trump’s plan. The idea of mass transfer has historically been confined to the far right in Israel, but on Wednesday, mainstream leaders said Trump’s plan was worth considering.
Benny Gantz, a centrist politician and former general long seen as a more moderate alternative to Netanyahu, was quoted in The Times of Israel as saying that Trump’s proposal showed “creative, original and intriguing thinking” and should be studied alongside other war goals, “prioritising the return of all the hostages.” Otzma Yehudit chairman and former National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted on X in English, saying: "Donald, this looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship." Ben-Gvir also said that if Trump’s plan were carried out, he would be willing to return to the government. "The ball is in the prime minister's hands now. If he makes this happen – I'm fully, fully there with him," he said on Galey Israel radio.
Trump’s statement could provide both Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich with enough reasons to keep the government alive. As Smotrich stated on social media: "Together, we [Israel and the US] will make the world great again."
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Ben Gvir says he’ll return to government if PM implements Trump’s Gaza transfer plan (Times of Israel)
Right-wing Israeli politicians celebrate Trump's calls for US intervention in Gaza (Haaretz)
Comments2
Ramon Capel6 February at 08:44 am
Basically it is a very accurate summary.
It is a proposal that will divide and radicalise the world around the positions of Israel and Israelis, and as an unfair reflection, of Jews in general.
The position of the israelis is very important in terms of its image in the face of the Western European world which has been proposing for 70 years a different set of moral principles, written down in international law to avoid events such as those of World War II.
Didn’t we agree that one should not discriminate on the basis of religion or ethnicity, nor ghettoise groups of people, and that a democratic society does not exclude people for these reasons and does not kill them?
David Jackson6 February at 07:36 am
Trump has established a precedent on his tariff negotiations with Canada and Mexico to obtain his objectives, which is to ‘carry a big stick’ threatening to use it if you don’t help him achieve his goal, which is less pallatible than using his ‘big stick’. In regards to his Gaza plan he had 3 objectives. First objective was to get the Arab worlds attention. He has achieved this. The second objective will be to get those same Arab governments; Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Eygpt to come up with workable alternative solutions to be imposed on Hamas, Gaza. The third objective is his end goal, Abraham Accord, normalisation of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which will only be achieved with a two State solution according to the Saudis. Watch this space.