Donald Trump has proposed the US “take over” Gaza and “level it” after meeting Israel’s prime minister. Allies and adversaries have condemned the plan, which would be a violation of international law. Listen to the latest episode of The World as you scroll.
Wednesday 5 February 2025 16:55, UK
We’re receiving some reaction to Donald Trump’s comments last night from the US House speaker.
Fellow Republican Mike Johnson has praised Trump’s proposal for the US to “take over” Gaza, and added the party would “stand with” his initiative.
Trump’s plan to create a “Riviera of the Middle East” has been met with widespread condemnation from the international community.
Johnson also added that he will discuss the situation in Gaza with Benjamin Netanyahu, with the pair due to meet at the Capitol tomorrow.
Donald Trump’s shock Gaza proposal has given Benjamin Netanyahu political “ammunition”, an analyst has said.
Former US-Middle East peace negotiator Aaron David Miller told CNN that Trump has given the Israeli prime minister “ammunition to use against his right-wing as to why it’s important to go through the first phase to keep Trump on Israel’s side”.
He explained Trump’s comments will help Netanyahu win over his political opponents: “Trump armed Netanyahu with a set of talking points that will be effective in helping him politically at home at a very critical moment.”
One of the countries that appears to be central to Donald Trump’s idea to resettle Palestinians from Gaza elsewhere and turn the enclave into a “Riviera” has rejected the proposal.
Trump said he would back an effort to permanently resettle Gazans to places where they can live without fear of violence, naming Jordan and Egypt among the possible destinations.
Egypt has already distanced itself from the proposal – today announcing it’s focusing on rebuilding the enclave “without moving the Palestinians out” – and now Jordan’s King Abdullah has rejected Trump’s remarks.
“His Majesty King Abdullah II stresses the need to put a stop to [Israeli] settlement expansion, expressing rejection of any attempts to annex land and displace the Palestinians,” the Jordanian royal court said on social media site X.
The monarch is scheduled to meet with Trump on 11 February at the White House.
Trump said the two countries would “open their hearts and will give us the kind of land that we need to get this done and people can live in harmony and in peace”.
Millions of Palestinians already live in Jordan.
According to an Israeli official, Benjamin Netanyahu gave Donald Trump a golden pager – in a nod to the attack that exploded hundreds of the devices belonging to Hezbollah operatives.
That attack, carried out in September last year, wounded thousands of people and killed at least nine, and came as fighting between Israel and the Lebanese militant group was escalating.
Netanyahu, who is in Washington this week for talks with Trump, spent five hours with the president during his visit, which included a dinner and tour of the White House, the official added.
While receiving the gift, the official said Trump responded: “That was a major operation.”
Donald Trump’s idea to resettle Gazans elsewhere is “about the erasure of Palestine”.
That’s according to Palestine’s ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot, who told our presenter Jayne Secker he was disappointed by Trump’s “one-sided” approach to the conflict.
“It just tells you all you need to know for the last 100 years,” he said.
“This is about the erasure of Palestine. And the centre of that erasure is the ethnic cleansing.”
He said most Gazans are from towns already “ethnically cleansed” by Israel.
But, he said, their determination to stay in the territory despite Israel’s bombardment reducing much of the area to rubble – described by Zomlot as genocide, a term Israel rejects – shows they “shall remain”.
“So if they have been tested via genocide and they remained on their home, that sideshow in Washington will not change the course of history,” he said.
“We shall remain.”
The future, he said, is about “the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people” and “establishing a state of Palestine”.
“Can I stress the right of return – if people from Gaza will go anywhere later, it will be back to their original homes inside the 48 areas [areas seized by Israel in 1948], not anywhere else,” he added.
“We only have one homeland – that is Palestine.”
Palestinians have so far overwhelmingly opposed Donald Trump’s idea to relocate Gazans elsewhere
“Trump is an actor who is good at acting and would do well in wrestling”, says one in the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, but “when it comes to politics he understands nothing”.
By Sam Doak, OSINT producer
While Donald Trump’s idea to resettle Gazans elsewhere and convert the territory into a “Riviera” reinforces his foreign policy, his “America First” pledge continues to have an impact domestically.
He has vowed to deport migrants living in the country illegally, and yesterday officials said some have been flown from Texas to Guantanamo Bay, a part of Cuba housing a US detention facility.
And it seems the site is being readied to take in migrants, with new satellite images from Planet Labs showing the sudden appearance of new tents.
The images from 4 February appear to show the new tents located in the Guantanamo Migrant Operations Center (GMOC), an existing detention facility positioned to the west of the site’s airfield.
Previously, the GMOC has been used to hold and process migrants apprehended by US authorities at sea.
Under new plans announced by the Trump administration, it is set to be expanded to house tens of thousands.
According to the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the facility will be used to hold migrants accused of committing crimes.
The satellite imagery shows the speed at which the GMOC is being readied for new arrivals, with two large groups of new structures appearing within five days.
The DHS released images of detainees being taken aboard a military aircraft by uniformed soldiers.
In a press release, secretary Kirsti Noem, head of the DHS, said: “President Donald Trump has been very clear: Guantanamo Bay will hold the worst of the worst. That starts today.”
Any forcible transfer from occupied territory breaches international law, the UN Human Rights Office has said in response to Donald Trump’s idea to take over Gaza.
The US president suggested Palestinians there should leave, with a “Riviera” created on the territory.
Many world leaders have already spoken out against the proposal, and the UN has joined them in opposition.
“It is crucial that we move towards the next phase of the ceasefire, to release all hostages and arbitrarily detained prisoners, end the war and reconstruct Gaza, with full respect for international humanitarian law and international human rights law,” the UNHR said in a statement to Reuters news agency.
“Any forcible transfer in or deportation of people from occupied territory is strictly prohibited.”
Not all the reaction to Donald Trump’s Gaza comments have been negative.
The idea of resettling Palestinians in the territory elsewhere – with Trump claiming the US can take over and create a “Riviera” – has been welcomed, unsurprisingly, by far-right Israeli politicians such as Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir.
With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, Reuters news agency reports a political source in Israel said Trump came up with “ingenious solutions” to problems that have dogged the country since its inception.
Netanyahu’s visit has been “very successful and surpassed all our expectations and dreams”, the source added.
While there has not been a large-scale poll in Israel to gauge a wider reaction to Trump’s comments, many may find the plan extreme.
Most Israelis are focused on bringing home hostages remaining in Gaza – taken during Hamas’s attack on 7 October 2023 – and normalising relations with Saudi Arabia and other countries.
These objectives may appear less likely if Trump presses ahead with his proposal.
But Jerusalem resident Robby Davidson said he “loved” the plan as it would guarantee “no danger to us there in the south”.
By Ben van der Merwe, data journalist
Donald Trump’s comments overnight that Gaza can be the “Riviera of the Middle East” – with Palestinians relocated elsewhere – has sparked widespread reaction, mostly in opposition.
His son-in-law and former aide Jared Kushner floated a similar idea last year, describing the enclave as a potentially “very valuable” waterfront property – see our 10.44am post.
Much of the territory has been reduced to rubble, with rights groups and world leaders calling for a rebuild to restore the strip back to its pre-conflict state.
That’s when Gaza City had a bustling seafront, with cafes, restaurants and family resorts.
The image below, on the left, shows a satellite view of the city’s beach in June 2023, three months before the war began.
On the right, you can see how the area looks as of last month, giving an idea of the kind of operation Gaza needs to rebuild.
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