Trump says Israel would hand Gaza to US when war ends, no American troops needed there

US President Donald Trump on Thursday expanded on his plan to push out Gaza’s 2.3 million residents, pledging that the Strip “would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting,” and rejecting American boots on the ground as a precondition for the reconstruction of the devastated enclave.

Given that there is currently a ceasefire, his use of the phrase “at the conclusion of the fighting,” appeared to at least leave the door open for the possibility that the war will resume, per the demand of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing flank.

Writing on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump specified: “The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting.”

Gazans “would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region,” he continued, apparently repeating his suggestion that the Strip’s population would be permanently displaced, despite a statement to the contrary by the top US diplomat on Wednesday. “They would actually have a chance to be happy, safe and free.”

“The US, working with great development teams from all over the world, would slowly and carefully begin the construction of what would become one of the greatest and most spectacular developments of its kind on Earth,” Trump continued, adding that “no soldiers by the US would be needed.” Trump’s Mideast envoy was said to have offered similar assurances to Republican lawmakers amid their concerns about foreign entanglements.

The US president signed off: “Stability for the region would reign!!!”

Trump explains how his plan for the Gaza Strip would work pic.twitter.com/GoZi3gMTVk

— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) February 6, 2025

Trump has in recent days repeatedly floated the idea that Egypt and Jordan take in some Gazan refugees while the Strip was being rebuilt — an idea vociferously rejected by Cairo and Amman. But on Tuesday, Trump went much further during a statement to the media at the White House alongside Netanyahu, when the new US president suggested that “the US will take over the Gaza Strip,” while the enclave’s residents should be resettled in other countries.

Related — Full text: With Netanyahu in Oval Office, Trump talks of ‘permanently’ resettling Gazans

Related — Full text: Trump, at press conference with Netanyahu, says US ‘will take over’ Gaza

Trump reportedly did not hold consultations on his new plan, and his announcement Tuesday was said to have even caught Netanyahu by surprise. The premier later applauded Trump’s “totally different” thinking, and Defense Minister Israel Katz on Thursday ordered the IDF to prepare for Gazans to voluntarily emigrate.

Posing with Senate leaders on Thursday, Netanyahu was asked whether “US troops are needed in Gaza to make Trump’s plan feasible?”

“No,” he answered.

By contrast, the international community — including allies of Washington and Jerusalem — has largely panned Trump’s plan, with Cairo reportedly warning Trump that pushing out Gaza’s residents could jeopardize Egypt’s 1979 peace deal with Israel.

Hamas roundly rejected the plan, with top official Sami Abu Zuhri saying that “what is required is to end the occupation and aggression against our people, not to expel them from their land.” Mahmoud Abbas, president of Hamas’s rival Palestinian Authority, also said the Palestinians would not relinquish their land, rights, and sacred sites.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said Trump’s remarks on Thursday were shocking and would ramp up tensions in the Middle East.

“Any populist, frivolous, or shocking arguments about any other palliative measures at the present stage are counterproductive and do not contribute to solving the problem,” she said.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baqaei, said Trump’s proposal was “a continuation of the Zionist regime’s targeted plan to completely annihilate the Palestinian nation, and is categorically rejected and condemned.”

Israel’s Western European allies also assailed the plan, with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying Palestinians “must be allowed home, they must be allowed to rebuild, and we should be with them in that rebuild on the way to a two-state solution.”

Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Trump’s plan “would also lead to new suffering and new hatred,” adding that “there must be no solution over the heads of the Palestinians.”

French Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine said Paris “reiterates its opposition to any forced displacement of the Palestinian population of Gaza, which would constitute a serious violation of international law, an attack on the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians, but also a major obstacle to the two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Bishara Bahbah, who founded Arab Americans for Trump and helped rally support for him in Michigan and other battleground states, said his group believes Trump’s “ideas, as well-intentioned as they might be, rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.”

“We’re opposed to any transfer of Palestinians, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, out of their homeland,” he said, adding that he still supports Trump as the best option to avoid conflict in Gaza. He said his organization changed its name to Arab Americans for Peace two days ago, reflecting its shift in focus following Trump’s election.

Trump, Netanyahu aides appear to walk back parts of plan

A top aide to Netanyahu was quoted by Channel 12 on Wednesday portraying Trump’s plan as “a ‘hold me back,’ which we don’t know will actually take place,” meant to add a “psychological component” in ongoing negotiations with Hamas about the second phase of the nascent Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal.

Meanwhile, some of Trump’s top aides have attempted to soften certain aspects of his plan, including US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Gazans’ displacement would be a temporary measure to facilitate the Strip’s reconstruction, contradicting Trump’s comment on Tuesday that he wants all Palestinians “permanently” removed from the Strip.

Speaking with reporters in Guatemala City, on his first diplomatic trip abroad, Rubio said what Trump “very generously has offered is the ability of the United States to go in and help with debris removal, help with munitions removal, help with reconstruction, the rebuilding homes and businesses and things of this nature so that then people can move back in.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri told reporters Wednesday that Steve Witkoff, Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, had assured Republican senators in a closed-door lunch at the US Capitol that Trump “doesn’t want to put any US troops on the ground, and he doesn’t want to spend any US dollars at all” on Gaza.

Witkoff also told lawmakers that the administration had been “gestating on this plan for some time,” according to Hawley.

Gaza takeover plan was reportedly unknown to top White House staff

The Missouri senator’s assertion ran counter to a Thursday report in The New York Times that Trump had not held discussions to explore the practicalities or legalities of his plan for Gaza before announcing it.

According to The Times, prior to the announcement, “his administration had not done even the most basic planning to examine the feasibility” of such a proposal and the potential level of US involvement.

Citing several unnamed officials, the newspaper reported that there had been no meetings with either the Pentagon or the State Department to discuss such a plan, as well as “no estimates of the troop numbers required, or cost estimates, or even an outline of how it might work.”

One US official said Trump had never mentioned the involvement of US troops in Gaza before his pronouncement on Tuesday. Other advisers told the newspaper that they “expected the Gaza ownership idea to die away quietly as it became clear to Mr. Trump that it was unfeasible.”

Trump told Netanyahu about the Gaza takeover plan shortly before their joint press conference on Tuesday, in a surprise to the premier, the Times said, citing two people briefed on the leaders’ interactions.

Asked at the press conference about the “authority” that would enable the US to take control of a foreign territory, Trump said only that it was “not a decision made lightly” and that “everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land.”

According to a report in The Times of Israel’s Hebrew sister site, Zman Yisrael, the outline of the plan originated with Joseph Pelzman, a professor at George Washington University, who published a paper in July 2024 entitled “An Economic Plan for Rebuilding Gaza.”

The proposal outlines a plan for outside countries and figures to “invest” in rebuilding Gaza under a 50-year lease, after which “sovereignty” for residents would be addressed. According to the plan, the primary focus of reconstruction would be on the tourism sector, including building beachfront hotels.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Trump told Netanyahu in a phone call in late summer 2024 that Gaza is a “prime piece of real estate” and that it could be an ideal site to construct hotels.

Pelzman told a podcast in August 2024 that his paper “went to the Trump people because they were the ones who initially had an interest, not the Biden people.” He said that Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, “wants to put money in it… they’re salivating to get in.”

Pelzman said that under his proposal, the Gaza Strip would be “completely emptied out,” noting that “the United States can lean on Egypt” to accept refugees from Gaza because “Egypt is a bankrupt state” with significant debt to the US.

While Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has not publicly responded to Trump’s proposal, Egypt has warned that the plan could undermine its peace treaty with Israel, a cornerstone of stability and American influence in the Middle East for decades.

Kushner, who served as a senior adviser in Trump’s first administration but has so far remained behind the scenes this time around, said in February 2024 that Gaza’s waterfront property “could be very valuable.”

The comments were widely panned at the time, with viewers suggesting Kushner wanted to expel the Palestinians and privately develop the land. Kushner has said that, when listened to in full, the recording demonstrates he was only making a point about the misuse of resources by Hamas to build tunnels and attack infrastructure rather than foster a peaceful economy.

Hamas sparked the war in Gaza with its thousands-strong assault on Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed some 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.

Agencies contributed to this report.