President Trump again reiterated his proposal for the United States to take over Gaza, telling reporters on Air Force One on Sunday that the strip of land was “a big real estate site” that the United States was “going to own.”
He also mentioned building “some beautiful sites for the people, the Palestinians, to live in.” The location of such sites was not clear. Mr. Trump has repeatedly suggested that the two million Palestinians from the enclave be relocated.
Mr. Trump’s comments added even more confusion around the proposal, which he first announced last week at a news conference at the White House alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. The idea has drawn widespread international condemnation, with some critics likening it to ethnic cleansing. The forced deportation or transfer of a civilian population is a violation of international law and a war crime, according to experts.
Top officials in the Trump administration attempted to walk back the president’s comments on Wednesday, a day after he first announced the idea. They insisted President Trump had not committed to sending American troops to Gaza and that any relocation of Palestinians would be temporary.
On Sunday, as Mr. Trump was traveling to attend the Super Bowl in New Orleans, he raised the proposal again.
“Think of it as a big real estate site, and the United States is going to own it,” he said of Gaza, according to an audio recording from Air Force One that was shared with reporters.
“There won’t be anybody there,” Mr. Trump added. “Hamas won’t be there,” he said, referring to the militant group that led the assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that touched off the war in Gaza. “We’ll be building through other of the very rich countries in the Middle East; they’ll be building some beautiful sites for the people, the Palestinians, to live in,” he said.
Mr. Netanyahu, at a government meeting in Israel on Sunday, praised Mr. Trump’s vision for the region following the war. “There are opportunities for possibilities that I think we never dreamed of, or at least a few months ago they did not seem possible — but they are possible,” he said.
“President Trump came with a completely different vision,” for the future of Gaza, Mr. Netanyahu said, “much better for the State of Israel, a revolutionary and creative vision, which we are discussing. He is very determined to carry it out.”
When Mr. Trump introduced the proposal at the White House last week, his administration had not done even the most basic planning to examine the feasibility of the idea, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. It would involve displacing two million Palestinians from Gaza; Mr. Trump suggested they should be relocated to countries like Egypt and Jordan, both of which swiftly rejected the idea.
At that news conference, Mr. Trump said that the United States would take over the Gaza Strip, “and we will do a job with it too.” He said the U.S. would be responsible for disposing of unexploded munitions and rebuilding Gaza, ultimately turning it into what he called, “the Riviera of the Middle East.”
Hiba Yazbek and Ephrat Livni contributed reporting.