Israel to hand over Gaza to US after fighting: Trump

US President Donald Trump said yesterday that Israel would hand over Gaza to the United States after fighting was over and the enclave’s population was already resettled elsewhere, which he said meant no US troops would be needed on the ground.

A day after worldwide condemnation of Trump’s announcement that he aimed to take over and develop the Gaza Strip into the “Riviera of the Middle East”, Israel ordered its army to prepare to allow the “voluntary departure” of Gaza’s residents.

Trump, who had previously declined to rule out deploying US troops to Gaza, clarified his plans in comments on his Truth Social web platform.

“The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting,” he said. Palestinians “would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region.”

“No soldiers by the US” would be needed!” he said.

Earlier Israel’s Defence Minister said he had ordered the army to prepare a plan to allow residents who wished to leave to exit Gaza voluntarily.

Katz said his plan would include exit options via land crossings, as well as special arrangements for departure by sea and air. He also said countries who have opposed Israel’s military operations in Gaza should take in the Palestinians.

Hamas official Basem Naim accused Katz of trying to cover up “for a state that has failed to achieve any of its objectives in the war on Gaza”, and said Palestinians are too attached to their land to ever leave.

Many Palestinians say they will never leave the enclave because they fear permanent displacement, like the “Nakba”, or catastrophe, when hundreds of thousands were dispossessed from homes in the war at the birth of the state of Israel in 1948.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Trump on Wednesday evening to avoid ethnic cleansing in Gaza.

“In the search for solutions, we must not make the problem worse. It is vital to stay true to the bedrock of international law. It is essential to avoid any form of ethnic cleansing,” Guterres told a previously planned meeting of a UN committee. “We must reaffirm the two-state solution,” he said.

Katz’s remarks drew quick criticism from Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares.

“Gazans’ land is Gaza and Gaza must be part of the future Palestinian state,” Albares said in an interview with Spanish radio station RNE.

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