Trump Says U.S. Will Take Over Gaza

Couldn't we take over Norway instead? They have tons of oil and great fish. Did I mention they have great Chard. Also great sunsets.

And no terrorists.

Trump Says U.S. Will Take Over Gaza

In Oval Office meeting with Netanyahu, the president didn’t rule out backing an Israeli strike on Iran

By Alexander Ward, Dov Lieber and Michael R. Gordon, WSJ

Updated Feb. 4, 2025 7:52 pm ET

WASHINGTON—President Trump called for nearly two million Palestinians to permanently leave Gaza for neighboring countries and for the U.S. to take long-term control of the territory, a sweeping break with decades of U.S. policy that left the idea of a Palestinian state in tatters.

“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip,” Trump said during the press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. “I do see a long-term ownership position, and I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East, and maybe the entire Middle East.”

The proposal, if implemented, would deeply involve the U.S. in a massive development project that Trump officials said earlier in the day could take 10 to 15 years. He left unaddressed how the U.S. would persuade Palestinians to voluntarily surrender their land and whether Israel would ultimately exercise sovereignty in the territory.

Trump cited the devastation in Gaza for why the enclave’s two million Palestinians had to move.

“I hope we can do something where they wouldn’t want to go back,” Trump said. The president added that he would like to see “really good quality housing” built for Palestinians outside Gaza while the strip undergoes reconstruction, which Trump administration officials said Tuesday could take 10 to 15 years.

Trump also didn’t rule out supporting Israel if it decides to strike Iran to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon. “We just don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon,” he said, adding, “we’ll see what happens.”

Trump’s plans for Iran are perhaps the murkiest part of his Middle East agenda, at one moment appearing to encourage Netanyahu to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, something that could trigger a broader war, while simultaneously saying he wants to avoid a war and cut a deal with Tehran.

Before meeting Netanyahu, he signed an order to reimpose “maximum pressure” on Iran, a first step toward toughening enforcement of sanctions on Iranian oil exports and other parts of the Iranian economy imposed during his first term.

The president said he was “torn” about signing the memorandum, adding: “Everybody wants me to sign it.”

Trump didn’t address who would take over Gaza if Palestinian residents departed and didn’t return.

Right-wing Israeli politicians have called for resettlement of Gaza. But that option would remove a significant portion of Palestinian territory that U.S. presidents—including the first Trump administration—have said for decades would form part of a Palestinian state.

Trump has yet to publicly address whether he has any plan to revive the moribund process aimed at achieving a Palestinian state alongside Israel, a goal that would be all the harder if the U.S. pressures Gaza residents to abandon their land.

The future of the precarious Gaza cease-fire was expected to dominate much of the closed-door discussion between Trump and Netanyahu in the Oval Office Tuesday.

A commitment from Netanyahu to negotiate an extension and potentially a long-term cessation of hostilities in Gaza would give Trump a diplomatic win, and could secure the release of remaining hostages, including some Americans.

Since taking office last month, Trump has floated the idea of moving the more than two million Palestinians in Gaza out of the territory so it can be rebuilt, a suggestion that has been rebuffed by Arab states even as it has been welcomed by far-right Israeli politicians.

Top diplomats from Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Qatar rejected “evictions” of Palestinians “in any form or under any circumstances or justifications,” in a statement after a meeting in Cairo on Saturday.

White House officials argued Tuesday that mass relocation from Gaza was the only viable option and that they could persuade Egypt and Jordan to accept displaced Palestinians. Trump has invited Jordan’s King Abdullah and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi to the White House for talks later this month.

Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said the three- to five-year timeline called for in the cease-fire agreement for reconstruction of Gaza’s shattered housing and infrastructure isn’t realistic. A more accurate estimate is 10 to 15 years, a senior official said.

“At some point, we have to look realistically. How do you rebuild Gaza,” said White House national-security adviser Mike Waltz. “What does that look like? What’s the timeline? These people are sitting with literally thousands of unexploded ordnance, in piles of rubble.

But U.S officials have yet to outline how they will remove Palestinians from Gaza if they don’t leave voluntarily. Moving forward with the plan could undercut Trump and Netanyahu’s larger goal of a reaching a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

The two leaders share a vision of normalizing ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, a diplomatic goal that could reshape the Middle East and end Israel’s isolation by Arab states. But a hurdle remains because Riyadh has made establishing a clear pathway to a Palestinian state a condition for recognizing Israel.

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel said in an interview Tuesday she was “open” to Trump’s proposal to relocate Palestinians out of Gaza, saying it was worth “discussion.”

Netanyahu is under cross-cutting pressure from his right-wing coalition to end a temporary truce against Hamas militants in Gaza and from other Israelis who want the remaining hostages freed and an end to the 15-month conflict.

Indirect talks on extending the 42-day fighting pause were supposed to begin Monday in Qatar, but Netanyahu was in Washington, delaying a decision on engaging with Hamas until after his meeting with Trump.

Trump seems intent on not letting the Gaza war drag on, bogging down his presidency in prolonged negotiations the way the Biden administration was—a message he was likely to convey to Netanyahu, analysts said.

“Fundamentally, this is about laying down a marker for Netanyahu that he is going to have to be much more accommodating to Trump’s preferences than he was to Biden’s,” said Jonathan Panikoff, a former senior intelligence official who is at the Atlantic Council think tank.

Netanyahu has said he is prepared to restart the fighting in Gaza and the country’s military is seeking to further isolate Hamas from the civilian population, military analysts said. He is under pressure from many in his own Likud party and members of his governing coalition not to accept a complete halt to the conflict.

But he might be willing to extend the cease-fire in return for a commitment from Trump to diminish Iran’s regional influence and prevent the regime from moving closer to becoming a nuclear-weapons state, a goal that would require intensified U.S. economic pressure and possibly military action.

“I’d be shocked if Netanyahu leaves without a promise to Trump that he will honor the second phase of the cease-fire,” said Bilal Saab, a former Pentagon official in the first Trump administration. “Trump will give him hell if he doesn’t.”

For Netanyahu the Oval Office meeting with Trump was one of the most important for an Israeli prime minister in years, said Amir Avivi, a former senior security official and founder of the Israel Defense and Security Forum think tank. “It revolves around building an overall strategy for how the Middle East will be shaped for decades.”

Tehran hasn’t made a decision to build a nuclear weapon, according to U.S. intelligence assessments. They are within weeks of being able to make enough nuclear material for a bomb, though it would take longer to make an actual nuclear device.

Trump and his national-security team have discussed the possibility of striking Iranian facilities, though the president has said little to indicate he is eager to use force and is open to negotiations over Tehran’s program and proxy network. Netanyahu has long tried to convince Trump that military force is the most effective way to disarm Iran.