U.S. President Donald Trump says Palestinians living in Gaza now would be moved to an unspecified location outside the territory and have no right to return under his plan for the enclave.
Trump, in an interview with Fox News released Monday, called his plan for the narrow territory along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea a "real estate development for the future."
“I would own it," he said, adding that the 2.3 million Palestinians now living in war-ravaged Gaza would be moved to as many as six different sites outside Gaza under a plan that the Arab world, as well as U.S. allies and adversaries alike, have already rejected.
Trump: Israel to hand Gaza over to US when war with Hamas ends
Trump, a billionaire New York real estate magnate before entering politics in 2015, did not say where the Palestinians would be relocated. But when asked by Fox anchor Bret Baier if they would be allowed to return home to Gaza, Trump said, "No, they wouldn't, because they're going to have much better housing."
"In other words, I'm talking about building a permanent place for them because if they have to return now, it'll be years before you could ever — it's not habitable,” Trump said of Gaza, decimated by 15 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas, although currently in the middle of a six-week ceasefire.
Trump first disclosed his surprising Gaza plan standing alongside visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House last week. He has suggested that Egypt and Jordan take in the Palestinians but both countries have rejected the idea.
In the Fox interview, set to be broadcast Monday after the first half was aired ahead of the Super Bowl pro football championship game Sunday, Trump said he would build "beautiful communities" for the Palestinians.
"Could be five, six, could be two. But we'll build safe communities, a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is," Trump said.
Meanwhile, Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror group, announced Monday it is indefinitely postponing its next hostage-prisoner exchange, accusing Israel of violating terms of the ceasefire that extends to early March.
The next exchange was set for Saturday, with three more Israelis set to be freed in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners jailed by Israel.
A spokesperson for Hamas' armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement, the militants remain committed to the ceasefire terms “as long as the occupation adheres to them.”
Hamas accused Israel of delaying the return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza, although hundreds of thousands have returned; “targeting them with airstrikes and gunfire across various areas”; and “failing to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid as agreed,” although 1,260 humanitarian aid trucks have entered Gaza and the United Nations has said the immediate threat of famine has dissipated.
Since the ceasefire took effect, Hamas has freed 21 hostages while Israel has released more than 730 prisoners.
Pressure is growing on Israel and Hamas to extend the truce.
While on Air Force One on the way to the Super Bowl, Trump told reporters he was losing patience with the situation after seeing emaciated hostages released by Hamas.
“I watched the hostages come back today and they looked like Holocaust survivors. They were in horrible condition. They were emaciated. It looked like many years ago, the Holocaust survivors, and I don’t know how much longer we can take that,” he said.
A new benchmark was reached Sunday in the ceasefire in Gaza, with Israeli troops withdrawing from the Netzarim corridor, a narrow strip of land that bisects the territory. It allowed more Palestinians to return to the northern sector where they once lived, but much of the land has been leveled by 15 months of fighting.
Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif Al-Qanoua said the withdrawal showed Hamas had "forced the enemy to submit to our demands" and that it thwarted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin "Netanyahu's illusion of achieving total victory."
Israeli officials did not disclose how many soldiers withdrew or to where. Troops currently remain along Gaza's borders with Israel and Egypt and a full withdrawal is expected to be negotiated in a later stage of the initial 42-day ceasefire.
But almost no progress has been made in negotiating an extension of the truce, which is supposed to lead to the release of more hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel.
During the first six-week phase of the ceasefire, Hamas is gradually releasing 33 Israeli hostages captured during its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel in exchange for a pause in fighting, freedom for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and a flood of humanitarian aid into Gaza. The deal also stipulated that Israeli troops would pull back from populated areas of Gaza as well as the Netzarim corridor.
In the second phase, all remaining living hostages would be released in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a "sustainable calm." But details are unclear and yet to be negotiated.
The war in Gaza was triggered by the shock October 2023 Hamas terror attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and led to the capture of 250 hostages. Israel’s counteroffensive killed more than 47,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, according to local health authorities. Israel says the death toll includes 17,000 militants it has killed.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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