President Donald Trump said on Sunday he remains “committed to buying and owning Gaza,” despite considerable pushback from U.S. allies in Europe and the Middle East.
“Think of it as a big real estate site, and the United States is going to own it, and will slowly, very slowly, develop it,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on his way to the Super Bowl in New Orleans.
“As far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it, other people may do it, through our auspices. But we’re committed to owning it, taking it, and making sure that Hamas doesn’t move back,” he said.
“There’s nothing to move back into. The place is a demolition site. The remainder will be demolished. Everything’s demolished,” he pointed out.
Trump was dismissive of the argument that the Palestinians would refuse to leave Gaza, no matter how badly damaged it was during the war Hamas started on October 7, 2023, and that no other nation would accept them as refugees.
“They don’t want to return to Gaza. If we could give them a home in a safer area – the only reason they’re talking about returning to Gaza is they don’t have an alternative. When they have an alternative, they don’t want to return to Gaza,” the president said.
“We’re going to make sure they live beautifully and in harmony and peace and that they’re not murdered,” he promised, predicting that people would “come from all over the world” to live in reconstructed, stable, terrorism-free Gaza.
Trump appeared confident he would be able to bring Gaza’s neighbors Egypt and Jordan on board with his plan, even though both governments have strenuously objected to his “buy Gaza” proposal. Jordan’s King Abdullah II is scheduled to meet with Trump in Washington on Tuesday, becoming the first Arab leader to meet with Trump since his inauguration.
Senior Jordanian officials said last week that King Abdullah has been making phone calls to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Qatar to organize opposition to Trump’s plan for Gaza.
Public statements from the Jordanian monarchy anticipate a cordial and “robust” discussion between the king and President Trump on “ways we can collaborate to make the Middle East more peaceful” but, in private, the Jordanian government is reportedly terrified that its huge existing population of nearly 6 million Palestinians will riot if Trump’s “buy Gaza” plan ends their long-standing, but unrealistic, dream of carving an independent state out of Israel.
The Jordanians are also said to be terrified that millions more Palestinians would be resettled on their territory if Gaza is emptied according to Trump’s vision. Such an influx of refugees could easily make the Palestinians a strong majority in Jordan.
“We hope we won’t see thousands of Palestinians streaming across the border trying to enter the Kingdom but we are prepared,” a Jordanian official told Reuters last Thursday, hinting that Jordan might be prepared to declare war on Israel to keep the Palestinians away.
As for Egypt, its foreign ministry said on Sunday that President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi will host an emergency summit of the Arab League in Cairo to discuss “new and dangerous developments for the Palestinian cause.”
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said last week that relocating the Palestinians out of Gaza, even temporarily, would be “a blatant and flagrant violation of international law,” and an “injustice and violation of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people,” which would have “catastrophic consequences.”
Also on Sunday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Trump plans to meet with Sisi, and possibly Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to discuss his plan for redeveloping Gaza.
“These are partners that must be listened to, they must be discussed with. We have to honor their feelings as well and see how we build a plan that is sustainable for the future,” Herzog said of Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.
Hamas was unsurprisingly hostile to President Trump’s renewed commitment to buying Gaza and expunging their bloodthirsty influence from the region.
“Gaza is not a property to be sold and bought. It is an integral part of our occupied Palestinian land,” a spokesman for the “political wing” of the terrorist organization said on Sunday.
