In a press conference on Tuesday, Feb. 4, President Trump, accompanied by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, made an emboldened statement regarding the current situation in Gaza. “The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip…We’ll own it…We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal,” Trump said. Trump also detailed his plans to relocate the population of Gaza to other countries, including Jordan and Egypt, who have since rejected Trump’s plans. While many fear what these plans mean for the state of Palestine and its people, many are wondering whether or not Trump can actually make these plans a reality.
The answer seems to be no. The US does not have the ability to impose command over Palestine as it does not have any legal claim to the territory. While there are US special forces running checkpoints south of Gaza City, this does not in any way mean that the US has the capacity to make such monumental decisions about the Palestinian people.
Marco Rubio, the recent pick for Secretary of State, attempted to clarify the comments made by the President. “The only thing President Trump has done, very generously, in my view, is offer the United States’ willingness to step in, clear the debris, clean the place up from all the destruction that’s on the ground,” Rubio said at a news conference in Guatemala City.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri has since condemned Trump’s remarks, calling them “ridiculous and absurd.” Other Middle Eastern countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, have also expressed disagreement with Trump’s proposal to move Palestinians out of Gaza, and UN officials have denounced Trump’s Gaza plan as against international law. Even residents of Tel Aviv have dismissed Trump’s comments, stating that “It’s pretty shocking, and nobody accepted it,” as reported by CNN.
Overall, there has been a widespread dissent at the idea of displacing even more Palestinians than those who have already been forced away. Since the press conference, more of Trump’s officials have made attempts to walk back the statements made by the President, insisting that any removal of people from Palestine would be temporary.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that Trump made no commitments to sending US military to Gaza. Despite this, Trump has continued his assertions that Gaza will be given to the US for control. When asked by reporters of his previous comments, Trump held strong on his proposal to remove Palestinians from Gaza and conduct a US takeover.
“We don’t want to see everybody move out and then move back in 10 years,” Trump said in a statement on Friday, Feb. 9. It’s still unclear how Trump’s proposal for Gaza will be administered at this time.