Explained: Donald Trump’s plan to ‘take over’ Gaza
Donald Trump’s plan for the US to take over the Gaza Strip has rocked the Middle East, and the world. Here’s what you need to know.
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US President Donald Trump’s announcement that the US should take over the Gaza Strip has created a barrage of questions and rocked the region.
Here’s what we know so far.
WHAT HAS DONALD TRUMP PROPOSED?
At a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr Trump told reporters that the US should “own” the Gaza Strip, and that Palestinians who had been displaced by Hamas’s recent conflict with Israel should not be allowed to return.
Among other comments, the president described Gaza as a “hellhole” and “not a place for people to be living”, but declared it could also become “the Riviera of the Middle East”.
“The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too. We’ll own it,” Mr Trump vowed.
Mr Trump said “various domains” should be built “that will ultimately be occupied by the 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza.”
“The only reason the Palestinians want to go back to Gaza is because they have no alternative,” he said.
As for Gaza itself, Mr Trump said the US would be responsible for dismantling unexploded bombs, remove partially destroyed buildings and “level the site”.
Mr Netanyahu backed Mr Trump’s plan, describing it as “thinking outside the box with fresh ideas” and “showing willingness to puncture conventional thinking”.
He said it was “something that could change history”.
At a press conference after his statement, Mr Trump said he saw the Gaza takeover as a “long term ownership position” that would bring peace “and great stability” to the region.
“This was not a decision made lightly … everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent,” he said.
WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO THE PEOPLE LIVING IN GAZA?
The Gaza Strip is currently home to 2.2 million Palestinians, overwhelmingly Muslim, although there is also a small Christian population as well.
In recent weeks Mr Trump had suggested Egypt and Jordan take in greater numbers of Palestinian refugees – an idea rejected by both countries.
WOULD CONGRESS SUPPORT TRUMP’S PLAN?
The early reaction has been tepid from the President’s supporters and downright furious from his opponents.
Influential Republican senator Lindsey Graham warned it would be “problematic”, and that his constituents “would probably not be excited about sending Americans to take over Gaza”.
His colleague Josh Hawley said that it was not “the best use of United States Resources to spend a bunch of money in Gaza”.
And Republican Senator Thom Tilley said there were “a couple of kinks in that Slinky,” a reference to the easily-tangled children’s toy
Meanwhile, Democratic senator Chris Coons declared it was “between offensive and insane and dangerous and foolish”.
Fellow Democrat Richard Blumenthal added that it would “blow apart the Abraham Accords”, agreements negotiated by the first Trump administration to normalise Israel’s relations with its Arab neighbours.
The Palestinian-Ameroican Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, the first Muslim to ever serve in Congress, said Mr Trump was “openly calling for ethnic cleansing”.
“He’s perfectly fine cutting off working Americans from federal funds while the funding to the Israeli government continues flowing.”
WHAT ARE PALESTINIANS SAYING?
The Palestinians have reacted strongly against Mr Trump’s announcement.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement: “Our people in the Gaza Strip will not allow these plans to pass. What is required is an end to the occupation and aggression against our people, not their expulsion from their land.”
The Palestinian envoy to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said people should respect the wishes of the people affected.
“Our homeland is our homeland, if part of it is destroyed, the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian people selected the choice to return to it. And I think that leaders and people should respect the wishes of the Palestinian people.”
Supporters of the Palestinian cause, who had already gathered to protest the arrival of Benjamin Netanyahu, were joined by more demonstrators shortly after Mr Trump made his announcement.
Executive director at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), Abed Ayoub, said Mr Trump’s proposal was “terrifying” and “insane”, but they should not be taken lightly.
“It would go against all norms and international law. This isn’t something that would be permitted to happen,” he told Al Jazeera.
“But at this point, you’ve got to ask yourself if you look at the past year and a half: How much does the international community, including Israel, really care about international law and norms?”
WHAT IS THE GAZA STRIP?
The Gaza Strip is a 40km long slice of land that sits between Israel and the Mediterranean Sea.
It was home to more than two million people before the war broke out.
It’s estimated that during the 15-month conflict six in 10 buildings were damaged, according to experts from the CUNY Graduate Center and Oregon State University who have been analysing satellite data.
The UN believes the damaged buildings include more than 90 per cent of the housing units in Gaza, with 160,000 destroyed and a further 276,000 severely or partially damaged.
WHAT IS THE GAZA CONFLICT ABOUT?
The conflict between Israel and Palestine is one of the longest-running and violent disputes in the world, dating back more than 100 years.
England controlled the area now known as Palestine during World War One, after the Ottoman Empire – which ruled that part of the Middle East – was defeated.
It was occupied by Arab and Jewish people, along with other ethnic groups.
Tensions escalated when the UK established a national home in Palestine for Jewish people.
Jewish people had historic links to the area, but Palestinian Arabs also had claims to the land and opposed the move.
The UK said the rights of Palestinian Arabs who were living there had to be protected.
Jewish people fled persecution in Europe between the 1920s and ’40s.
They needed a safe haven from the Holocaust.
By 1947, there was growing violence between the two groups and the UN voted for Palestine to be split into Jewish and Arab states.
Arabs did not support the plan, arguing Jewish people would have more of the land with a smaller population.
Jewish leaders in Palestine declared Israel an independent state before the British rule ended. Israel was then recognised by the UN.
A number of violent disputes followed as each state moved to reclaim land.
Gaza is surrounded by Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea and is home to 2.3 million Palestinians.
It is one of the most densely populated places on earth, with high levels of poverty.
Egypt was driven out of the Strip in 1967 and it was occupied and controlled by Israel.
Hamas originated in Gaza. Most wars between the states have seen people killed on both sides, but largely Palestinians in Gaza.
WHAT DO OTHER WORLD LEADERS SAY ABOUT THE PLAN?
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said in a statement on X it rejects any attempts to displace Palestinians from their land and reaffirmed Saudi Arabia’s “firm and unwavering” position on the establishment of a Palestinian state.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR AUSTRALIA?
Mr Trump’s announcement could pose a political problem for both Labor and the Coalition, months out from a federal election.
Speaking in Canberra shortly after Mr Trump’s announcement, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia’s position on Israel and Palestine “remains the same”, but refused to answer if the President’s comments were a potential threat to establishing a lasting peace in the Middle East region.
Mr Albanese said so far the Australian Government had not received any requests regarding the rebuilding of Gaza.
Shadow Assistant Foreign Affairs Minister Julian Leeser told Sky Australia the Coalition supported a two-state solution which could be “fast-tracked” if Palestine recognised Israel’s “right to exist”.
In 2018, when the then Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison backed Mr Trump’s decision to move the site of the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and suggested Australia might follow suit, it prompted widespread concern around the Muslim world, and prompted Indonesia to delay signing a $16 billion free trade deal.
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