From the Liveblog of
Thursday, May 15, 2025
Trump: Oct. 7 was ‘one of the worst days in history of the world’; wants US to ‘take’ Gaza, ‘make it a freedom zone’
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Speaking in Qatar, US President Donald Trump says that October 7 was “one of the worst days in the history of the world, not only in this region.”
In comments at a meeting of business leaders in Doha, the US president says the Hamas-led assault on Israel was “one of the worst, most atrocious attacks anyone has ever seen.”
Trump says that Hamas is “going to have to be dealt with.”
He says he wants the United States to “take” Gaza and turn it into a “freedom zone”: “I have concepts for Gaza that I think are very good. Make it a freedom zone. Let the United States get involved and make it just a freedom zone,” he says. “I’d be proud to have the United States have it, take it, make it a freedom zone.”
“We’re working very hard in Gaza. Gaza has been a territory of death and destruction,” he says.
“I have aerial shots where, I mean, there’s practically no building standing. It’s not like you’re trying to save something. There’s no building. People are living under the rubble of buildings that collapsed, which is not acceptable,” he says of the Palestinian enclave.
“We are dealing with Hamas and Iran and the Houthis, and that was I think, very successful,” he also says, referring to US strikes on the Iran-backed Yemeni group.
The Times of Israel Community.