White House says US would not fund Trump’s ‘out-of-the-box’ Gaza plan

Washington: The White House has suggested no American money would be spent on rebuilding Gaza and Palestinians would only be “temporarily” relocated as part of Donald Trump’s shock Middle East plan, as world leaders continued to emphasise the need for Palestinian sovereignty.

In a briefing that exacerbated confusion about the president’s proposal for the US to “take over” and rebuild the Gaza Strip, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the US would not pay for it and stressed Trump had not committed to putting boots on the ground.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu became the first foreign leader to meet Donald Trump at the White House since his return as president.Credit: AP

But he has not ruled it out either, which Leavitt said was a tactic to maintain leverage in negotiations to come.

“This is an out-of-the-box idea. That’s who President Trump is,” she said. “We’ve had the same people pushing the same solutions to this problem for decades.”

Leavitt also said Palestinians would be temporarily relocated out of Gaza, rather than permanently moved as Trump had said the previous day in his joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump said he envisaged long-term US ownership of the 365-square-kilometre Gaza Strip, describing it as an uninhabitable hellhole destroyed by decades of violence, in particular the past 16 months of Israeli strikes. It would be rebuilt as a home for “the world’s people”, he said, including Palestinians.

Palestinians walk along a street in Gaza City, littered with rubble from buildings destroyed during the Israeli army’s ground and air offensive.Credit: AP

The proposal was instantly condemned by Middle East analysts, Democrats and some Republicans as ethnic cleansing and counter to a two-state solution. It also elicited a rapid response from the Arab world, including Saudi Arabia, which reiterated it would not normalise relations with Israel without a Palestinian state.

But Netanyahu said on Thursday (AEDT) that there was nothing wrong with Trump’s idea to displace Palestinians from Gaza.

“The actual idea of allowing Gazans who want to leave to leave – I mean, what’s wrong with that? They can leave, they can then come back, they can relocate and come back. But you have to rebuild Gaza,” Netanyahu said in an interview on Fox News.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called for the United Nations to “protect the Palestinian people and their inalienable rights,” saying that what Trump wanted to do would be “a serious violation of international law.”

Jordan’s Royal Court said in a statement that King Abdullah rejected “any attempts to annex land or displace the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank”. Abdullah is expected to meet Trump at the White House next week.

The United Arab Emirates also stressed its “categorical rejection of any infringement on the Palestinians’ unalienable rights, and any attempts at displacement”, as it called on world leaders to focus on addressing the root cause of the conflict and reaching a just and lasting peace.

While not explicitly criticising Trump, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told his parliament Palestinians wanted to go home to Gaza.

“They must be allowed home,” he said. “They must be allowed to rebuild, and we must be with them in that rebuild on the way to a two-state solution.”

The French Foreign Ministry reiterated the country’s opposition to the forced displacement of Gaza’s population, “which would constitute a serious violation of international law, an attack on the legitimate aspirations of Palestinians and also a major obstacle to the two-state solution and a factor of major destabilisation for our close partners, Egypt and Jordan, and the whole region”.

France said a third power must not control Gaza but form part of a future Palestinian state under the aegis of the Palestinian Authority, referring to the Fatah-controlled entity, which currently exercises partial control of the West Bank.

“Hamas must be disarmed and have no part in the territory’s governance,” it said.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the Gaza Strip belonged to Palestinians, and their expulsion would be unacceptable and contrary to international law.

“It would also lead to new suffering and new hatred … There must be no solution over the heads of the Palestinians,” she said.

London-based publication Middle East Eye reported Jordan’s former deputy prime minister calling Trump’s announcement “unprecedented colonialism” and “a declaration of war on the Arab world”.

At his news conference, Trump claimed he had spoken with Middle Eastern leaders who “loved the idea” of a US takeover of Gaza but did not name them.

Leavitt said Trump had been “socialising” the idea for some time but would continue to talk to US allies in the region.

Her boss was “the best dealmaker on the planet”, she added. “He expects our partners, particularly Egypt and Jordan, to accept Palestinian refugees temporarily so we can rebuild their home.”

with Reuters, AP

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