Washington:
President Donald Trump made a rare proposal for the US to “take over” the Gaza Strip, as he hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for essential talks on the truce with Hamas.
Trump additionally doubled down on his name for Palestinians to maneuver out of the war-battered territory to Center Japanese nations like Egypt and Jordan, regardless of the Palestinians and each nations flatly rejecting his suggestion.
“The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we’ll do a job with it, too. We’ll personal it,” Trump instructed a joint press convention with Netanyahu.
Trump stated the US would do away with unexploded bombs, “stage the positioning” and take away destroyed buildings, and “create an financial improvement that may provide limitless numbers of jobs and housing for the individuals of the realm.”
However Trump appeared to counsel that it was not Palestinians who would return there.
“It shouldn’t undergo a technique of rebuilding and occupation by the identical those who have actually stood there and fought for it and lived there and died there and lived a depressing existence there,” he stated.
He stated Gaza’s two million inhabitants ought to as a substitute “go to different nations of curiosity with humanitarian hearts.”
Netanyahu hailed Trump because the “biggest buddy Israel has ever had.”
He stated the US president’s Gaza plan may “change historical past” and was price “taking note of.”
– ‘Nice drive’ –
Egypt and Jordan have flatly rejected Trump’s suggestion of transferring Palestinians from Gaza.
The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations in the meantime stated world leaders ought to “respect” the desires of Palestinians.
Gazans have additionally denounced Trump’s thought. “Trump thinks Gaza is a pile of rubbish — completely not,” stated 34-year-old Hatem Azzam, a resident of the southern metropolis of Rafah.
The US president has claimed credit score for securing the primary six-week section of the Israel-Hamas truce after greater than 15 months of preventing and bombing, and he was anticipated to induce Netanyahu to maneuver to the following section aimed toward a extra lasting peace.
Netanyahu earlier stated “we will strive” when requested how optimistic he was about transferring on to section two.
He hailed Trump’s “nice drive and highly effective management” in sealing the unique ceasefire deal, and took a swipe at former president Joe Biden, with whom he had tense relations over the loss of life toll in Gaza.
“When the opposite facet sees daylight between us — and sometimes in the previous couple of years they noticed daylight — it is tougher. Once we cooperate, likelihood is good,” Netanyahu stated.
Israel stated hours forward of the White Home talks it was sending a workforce to mediator Qatar to debate the second section of the settlement.
Hamas stated Tuesday negotiations for the second section had begun, with spokesman Abdel Latif al-Qanou saying the main focus was on “shelter, reduction and reconstruction”.
Below the primary section of the ceasefire, Palestinian militants and Israel have begun exchanging hostages.
Eighteen hostages have been freed to date in change for some 600 principally Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
The struggle started when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, taking into Gaza 251 hostages, 76 of whom are nonetheless held within the Palestinian territory together with 34 the Israeli navy says are lifeless.
Households of the Israeli hostages have been urging all sides to make sure the settlement is maintained so their family members might be freed.
Because the Gaza ceasefire took impact on January 19, Israel has launched a lethal operation towards militants within the occupied West Financial institution’s north.
UN help company UNRWA — which is now banned in Israel — warned that the closely impacted refugee camp of Jenin was “going right into a catastrophic path”.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military stated a gunman killed two troopers earlier than being shot lifeless in an assault south of Jenin.
The truce has additionally led to a surge of meals, gas, medical and different help into Gaza, and allowed individuals displaced by the struggle to return to the north of the Palestinian territory.
Hamas’s October 7 assault resulted within the deaths of 1,210 individuals on Israeli facet, principally civilians, in keeping with an AFP tally based mostly on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliatory response has killed at the very least 47,518 individuals in Gaza, the bulk civilians, in keeping with the Hamas-run territory’s well being ministry. The UN considers these figures as dependable.
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)