Trump says the U.S. will 'own' Gaza — what that could mean for the Middle East
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The Gaza Strip, ground zero of Israel's war with Hamas, is only about twice the size of Washington, D.C. It has about 25 miles of coastline along the Mediterranean Sea, with a population of about 2 million people. And last week... The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. President Trump proposed relocating those people to other countries in the region, like Egypt and Jordan.
We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out.
Trump has said the Palestinians would not be allowed to return. UN officials and others say Trump's plan would amount to ethnic cleansing. And despite domestic and international concerns that the U.S. is empire building, Trump continues to double down on his plans for the U.S. to own Gaza. He brought it up in the Oval Office on Tuesday while sitting next to the King of Jordan. King Abdullah was asked directly what he thought of Trump's plan.
Just to follow up with one on that for King Abdullah, can you clarify again, sir, how do you feel about the U.S. taking Gaza, as the president said?
Well, again, this is something that we as Arabs will be coming to the United States with something that we're going to talk about later to discuss all these options.
Consider this. Trump says the U.S. is going to take over Gaza, though he offers few specifics. What could the proposal mean for Palestinians and the broader Middle East? From NPR, I'm Ari Shapiro. It's Consider This from NPR. President Trump continues to insist that the U.S. will take over Gaza, that its residents will be moved to what Trump calls a beautiful location with new houses. Many people have reacted with horror, including Democratic Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen last week on MSNBC.
This isn't just like a paper violation of international law. It is ethnic cleansing by another name. And it will certainly embolden our adversaries.
NPR's Kat Lonsdorf joins us from Tel Aviv. She has been following all of this closely and hearing from Palestinians in Gaza. Hi, Kat.
Hey, Ari.
Let's start with that moment in the Oval Office on Tuesday afternoon. You had Trump insisting that this will happen and King Abdullah of Jordan not exactly saying no, but not saying yes either. What have leaders of Egypt and Jordan been saying?
Yeah, like you said, King Abdullah was reticent on TV and careful not to make any kind of commitment. Both Jordan and Egypt have outright rejected Trump's plan, but Trump has made threats of cuts in U.S. aid and military spending to both. Both Egypt and Jordan depend heavily on U.S. support. Abdullah is in a tough place here, which is why he was so cautious. He said he had to discuss the idea with other regional leaders. But there are no Arab leaders in the region who support this plan. It's possible that Abdullah and others are hoping Saudi Arabia, which is richer and more powerful, will talk Trump out of it. The Saudis were the first in the region to reject it, and very swiftly.
In the week since Trump stood next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and threw out the idea, a shaky ceasefire in Gaza has become more shaky. What impact has Trump's proposal had?
So Trump's proposal for Gaza hasn't directly come up in the current back and forth between Israel and Hamas, but it's certainly in the background. The U.S. taking over Gaza and relocating all of the Palestinians from there is not part of the ceasefire agreement. The ceasefire agreement took months to hammer out, and the U.S., including members of Trump's own administration, helped broker it. So there's a lot of confusion on how this ceasefire agreement can actually proceed if Trump keeps pushing this controversial plan.
So those are the broad political dynamics. All of this discussion centers on the people of Gaza who have already suffered war displacement and are now beginning to return to areas that may be all but destroyed. So what are you hearing from people on the ground there?
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