Trump plan for US “takeover” of Gaza criticized meets mixed reaction – National & International News – WED 5Feb2025

 

Trump has proposed a US “takeover” of Gaza and the, likely permanent, removal of its population. How serious is Trump’s proposal and is it feasible?

 

Trump proposes US “takeover” of Gaza to mixed reactions

Yesterday, during a press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Trump stunned the press by announcing his plan for the US to “take over” the Gaza Strip. In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly made allusions to Gaza’s prime real estate, its “perfect weather”, its beautiful sea front, saying that “a lot of great things could be done with it”. Last night, Trump laid out his vision for recreating Gaza as a “Riviera of the Middle East” under US ownership. 

This plan, as he sees it, would necessitate the removal of Gaza’s population of around 2 million people. When asked by reporters, Trump said that these people would be removed by force, even by American boots on the ground, if necessary.

Trump defended his plan to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip by force (which would be a war crime) by saying that the Palestinians would be relocated to someplace beautiful where they could live in peace. When asked if Palestinians would have the right to return once Gaza is rebuilt, he said his hope was that they would not want to once resettled elsewhere.

Today, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt walked back some aspects of Trump’s plan, including his idea of having American boots on the ground in Gaza and the notion of permanent Palestinian displacement.

Condemnation at home and abroad

Trump’s plan, if it were implemented, would be a flagrant violation of international law. Gaza, along with the West Bank in East Jerusalem, are internationally recognized as sovereign Palestinian territory to be part of a future Palestinian state. Predictably, Trump’s proposal was met with condemnation internationally, including from many US allies.

The proposal has also divided the Republican Party. The America First contingent, which heavily populates Trump’s administration, loudly balked at the notion of committing US funds and soldiers to such a costly and, likely, bloody undertaking. 

Republican Sen. Rand Paul commented on Twitter, “I thought we voted for America First. We have no business contemplating yet another occupation to do more treasure and spill our soldiers blood”. House Speaker Mike Johnson, on the other hand, said he would support the proposal and would discuss it with Netanyahu on Thursday.

How serious is this proposal?

While Trump said that this plan had taken shape after weeks of careful thought and consultation, the announcement seems to have taken many of his senior aides completely by surprise. Some observers believe that it even took Prime Minister Netanyahu by surprise. 

It is possible that, like many of Trump’s grandiose pronouncements, there is an ulterior motive. Negotiators are currently in Doha, Qatar’s capital, to hammer out agreements that will shape the second phase of the ceasefire and hostage exchange deal currently in effect. However, the Israeli negotiating team has so far not made an appearance, according to the Qatari Prime Minister. 

Reports indicate that Netanyahu has delayed commencing negotiations until he was able to speak with President Trump in person yesterday. Netanyahu has said repeatedly that he wishes to continue the war in Gaza, ceasefire or not. This is, in part, due to the influence of members of his coalition, including his Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose party is supported by Israel’s illegal settlement movement. The settler movement has made no secret of the fact that they wish to take over Gaza so that they can reestablish illegal settlements that were expelled from the territory in 2005. Therefore, Smotrich has made continuing the war in Gaza a condition of his remaining in the government.

If Smotrich or other coalition partners depart, Netanyahu’s government would fall. Once out of power, Netanyahu faces a potential prison sentence for bribery and corruption charges. It seems that Netanyahu was hoping Trump would offer him something that he could use to appease Smotrich.

Although Trump, when asked, did not seem particularly interested in the idea of Israeli settlements in his planned resort enclave, Smotrich and other far-right figures in Israel seem to have received Trump’s announcement favorably.

Do Palestinians want to leave Gaza?

Trump may be correct in his assumption that some of Gaza’s population would be happy to depart for greener pastures. In the past 15 months, an estimated 150,000 Palestinians have left Gaza, paying extortionate amounts of money to Egyptian border guards to do so. These people left knowing that they would likely never be able to return.

However, most Palestinians in Gaza are likely to reject the idea of being moved on. Over 70% of the Palestinians in Gaza are refugees or descendants of refugees from Israel’s expulsion of the Palestinian population from what is now Israel in 1948-49. Despite decades of oppression, violence, and deprivation at the hands of Israeli occupiers, generations of Palestinians have clung stubbornly to the land, sacrificing the lives of thousands to hold on to it.

Days after the ceasefire went into effect, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced in the south of the strip made their way back to the north, mostly on foot but many in vehicles. They returned to their homes, knowing that their homes were most likely rubble. 

Undaunted, they have pitched camps near where their homes used to be and have already begun rebuilding. Israel destroyed most of Gaza’s heavy equipment, including machines used in construction, bulldozers and other earthmoving equipment. Reports indicate that Israel is also blocking this equipment from entering Gaza, as well as tents and trailers for temporary housing, in violation of the ceasefire agreement.

Rather than waiting on this help to materialize, the Palestinians have begun reusing material from their destroyed homes to build huts. Some have even fashioned mud bricks and used mud as mortar, just as their ancestors have done throughout the Levant for thousands of years.

Could Palestinians be forced to leave? 

When asked by a reporter, Trump stated that he would seize the territory and expel its population by force if necessary. This would present a daunting challenge for the US or any other military that sought to engage in such an undertaking. The newly appointed Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces recently stated that 5,942 Israeli soldiers were killed in the recent war and over 15,000 were injured severely enough to require rehabilitation. These figures likely include IDF losses from fighting in both Gaza and Lebanon.

Gaza’s famous tunnel system has been damaged by Israeli bombardment, but large parts of it are still operational. Hamas were still able to lob rockets into Israel using the tunnel system days before the ceasefire was signed. Any soldiers sent to Gaza would be facing the danger of a Hamas fighter popping up out of nowhere with rocket-propelled grenades. The same would be true for any construction workers sent to Gaza if Palestinians were removed by violence.

Moreover, the Arab states have rejected Trump’s plan outright, despite Trump’s claims that they were in favor of it. Following the announcement, Saudi Arabia issued a statement rejecting the proposal and reiterating their position that any normalization deal with Israel (something Netanyahu desperately wants) would have to come with a credible path to a sovereign Palestinian state.

Trump has said he would convince Jordan and Egypt would take in the displaced Palestinians, despite their repeated refusals. This is unlikely for two reasons. Firstly, the populations of these countries would likely revolt if their leaders were seeing enabling the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. Secondly, much of Gaza’s population have varying degrees of affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood, a political organization hostile to the ruling powers in both Jordan and Egypt. Neither President Sisi in Egypt nor King Hussein of Jordan are likely to take such a politically destabilizing step when it poses an existential threat to their grip on power, no matter what threats or inducements Trump has in mind.

If the Palestinians do have to be removed from Gaza for a time, they would likely be more amenable to being accommodated in Israel, which is where most of their families come from in the first place. However, this is not a possibility that the Israeli government is likely to entertain.