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2 hours ago
Trump insists 'everybody loves' his Gaza proposal
Donald Trump has once again said that “everybody loves” his proposal for the US to take over the Gaza Strip, despite his shock announcement facing global condemnation.
“Everybody loves it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday.
He refused to take further questions as he was overseeing the swearing in of the new US attorney general, Pam Bondi.
In a joint press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, Trump claimed “everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land,” referring to the Gaza Strip.
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Israel follows US in pulling out of UN human rights council
Israel is ending its cooperation with the UN’s human rights council (UNHRC), foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar announced, a day after Donald Trump signed an executive order ending the US’s participation in the UNHRC.
Israel “welcomes” Trump’s decision not to participate in the UNHRC, Sa’ar said, adding:
The UNHRC has traditionally protected human rights abusers by allowing them to hide from scrutiny, and instead obsessively demonizes the one democracy in the Middle East - Israel. This body has focused on attacking a democratic country and propagating antisemitism, instead of promoting human rights.
Donald Trump said the US will not pay for the rebuilding of Gaza, the White House said.
The Trump administration will “work with our partners in the region to reconstruct this region,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
She described Trump’s plan as an “out of the box idea”, adding: “That’s who President Trump is. That’s why the American people elected him.”
Trump has not yet committed to putting US troops in Gaza, says White House
The White House’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said Donald Trump “has not committed to putting boots on the grounds in Gaza”.
Trump, during his joint press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, declined to rule out sending US troops to move Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip.
Asked if the White House can rule out sending American troops to Gaza, Leavitt said:
I am saying that the president has not committed to that just yet. He has not made that commitment.
The White House’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, is holding the first press briefing since Donald Trump announced his proposal for the US to take over the Gaza Strip.
Leavitt noted remarks from Trump yesterday that the “bonds of friendship and affection” between the US and Israeli people are “absolutely unbreakable”.
Trump is “committed to eliminated Hamas and securing a lasting peace for the entire region,” she said.
The historic proposal for the United States to take over Gaza, announced by President Trump last night, underscores this commitment.
She described Trump as an “outside of the box thinker” and “visionary leader” who “solves problems that many others … claim are unsolvable.”
UN chief to warn against 'ethnic cleansing' in Gaza
The UN secretary general’s spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, has been speaking to reporters after Donald Trump’s shocking plan for the US to take over the Gaza Strip.
“Any forced displacement of people is tantamount to ethnic cleansing,” Dujarric said, previewing comments that the UN chief, António Guterres, will say later today.
The UN secretary general believes that any solutions for Gaza should “stay true to the bedrock of international law” and not make the problem worse, he said, adding:
It is essential to avoid any form of ethnic cleansing. And, of course, he will reaffirm the two state solution.
Trump insists 'everybody loves' his Gaza proposal
Donald Trump has once again said that “everybody loves” his proposal for the US to take over the Gaza Strip, despite his shock announcement facing global condemnation.
“Everybody loves it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday.
He refused to take further questions as he was overseeing the swearing in of the new US attorney general, Pam Bondi.
In a joint press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, Trump claimed “everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land,” referring to the Gaza Strip.
Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and former aide, was reportedly behind the American president’s plan to remove people from the Gaza Strip and put the territory under US control.
Kushner was involved in crafting Trump’s prepared remarks that he made alongside Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, yesterday, the Times of Israel reports, citing Puck News.
Netanyahu had not requested that Trump pursue such a plan ahead of time, according to the report.
Kushner, who was a senior foreign policy adviser under Trump’s first administration, has previously spoken about the “very valuable” potential of Gaza’s “waterfront property”.
In an interview in February 2024, he suggested Israel should remove civilians while it “cleans up” the strip. “From Israel’s perspective I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up,” he said.
Here’s a clip of that interview:
Speaker Johnson welcomes Trump's 'bold action'
The speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, has welcomed President Trump’s Gaza proposal, saying it could help achieve “lasting peace in Gaza”.
Responding on X to a clip in which Trump suggested the US should “take over” Gaza, Johnson wrote: “The United States stands firmly with Israel and the people of the Middle East, which haven’t experienced peace in many, many years.
“Violence and hatred do not have to define the region’s future.
“Today, President Trump took bold action in hopes of achieving lasting peace in Gaza. We are hopeful this brings much needed stability and security to the region.”
Displacing Palestinians would be a “moral abomination”, the Israel and Palestine director for Human Rights Watch has said.
“International humanitarian law forbids the forced displacement of the population of an occupied territory,” Omar Shakir told Reuters.
“When such forced displacement is widespread, it can amount to a war crime or a crime against humanity.”
From “problematic” to “a couple of kinks in that Slinky” to “a bit of a stretch”, reaction from some Republicans who weighed in on Donald Trump’s proposal to “own” Gaza was mostly muted on Wednesday, as many senior party leaders chose to remain silent.
Some of the strongest criticism came from Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who wrote on X: “The pursuit for peace should be that of the Israelis and the Palestinians. I thought we voted for America First.
“We have no business contemplating yet another occupation to doom our treasure and spill our soldiers’ blood.”
His critical comments were an outlier among Republicans, although Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina senator, said he foresaw issues with the plan.
“We’ll see what our Arab friends say about that,” Graham said, reported by Politico. “I think most South Carolinians would probably not be excited about sending Americans to take over Gaza. I think that might be problematic, but I’ll keep an open mind.”
Trump’s head-spinning pronouncement appeared to catch many Republican politicians off guard, including the North Carolina senator Thom Tillis.
“There’s probably a couple of kinks in that Slinky, but I’ll have to look at the statement,” he said.
“Obviously it’s not going to happen. I don’t know under what circumstance it would make sense, even for Israel.”
Read the full story here:
Aamna Mohdin
British Palestinians have condemned Donald Trump’s plan to “take over” the Gaza Strip and called for an urgent rethink of UK government policies.
Dr Sara Husseini, director of the British Palestinian Committee, said Trump’s plans were “an extension of the relentless dispossession and dehumanisation of Palestinians we have experienced for decades, in particular over the past 15 months of Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza”.
“Israel has been emboldened to breach international humanitarian law, thanks to the impunity it has been granted by the US, UK and other allies, along with the provision of military support from successive US and UK governments,” she said.
“Keir Starmer’s government must now take immediate, effective action against all attempts to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians from their homeland… and seek urgent accountability for Israel’s violations of international law.”
Dr. Nimer Sultany, reader in public law at SOAS University of London and the editor-in-chief of the Palestine Yearbook of International Law textbook, said that “instead of holding Israel to account for making Gaza uninhabitable, the US is aiding Israel in completing the genocide”.
“Instead of enforcing the International Court of Justice’s July ruling by ending the Israeli occupation and dismantling the Israeli settlements, Trump is seeking to displace Palestinians demanding freedom. Instead of denouncing Israeli annexation, which is no less unlawful than [Russia’s annexation of] Crimea, the US plans to facilitate it.
“All states and human rights defenders need to forcefully reject this ugly face of barbarism: these attempts seek to destroy not only Gaza but also the international legal order itself.”
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