Donald Trump: Thank you, very much. That’s a lot of press. Congratulations, you bring them out, you really bring them out. Today I’m delighted to welcome Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu back to the White House. It’s a wonderful feeling and a wonderful event. We had fantastic talks, and thank you very much, with your staff.

He’s the first foreign head of state to visit during our administration. And Bibi, I want to say it’s an honour to have you with us. Over the past four years, the US and the Israeli alliance has been tested more than any time in history, but the bonds of friendship and affection between the American and Israeli people have endured for generations and they are absolutely unbreakable.

They are unbreakable. I’m confident that under our leadership the cherished alliance between our two countries will soon be stronger than ever. We had a great relationship. We had great victories together four years ago, not so many victories over the past four years, however. In my first term, prime minister and I forged a tremendously successful partnership that brought peace and stability to the Middle East like it hadn’t seen in decades.

Together, we defeated ISIS, we ended the disastrous Iran nuclear deal, one of the worst deals ever made, by the way, and imposed the toughest ever sanctions on the Iranian regime. We starved Hamas and Iran’s other terrorist proxies, and we starved them like they had never seen before, resources and support disappeared for them.

I recognized Israel’s capital, opened the American embassy in Jerusalem and got it built, by the way – built it too just – not only designated it but got it built at a price that nobody has seen for years. We got it built. It’s beautiful, all Jerusalem stone right from nearby and it was – it’s something that’s very special.

And recognised Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, something that they talked about for years and they weren’t able to get it. And I got it. And with the historic Abraham Accords, something that was really an achievement that was, I think, going to become more and more important because we achieved the most significant Middle East peace agreements in half a century, but the Abraham Accords in particular.

And I really believe that many countries will soon be joining this amazing peace and economic development transaction. It really is a big economic development transaction. I think we’re going to have a lot of people signing up very quickly. Unfortunately for four years, nobody signed up. Nobody did anything for four years except in the negative.

Unfortunately, the weakness and incompetence of those years, those past four years, the grave damage around the globe that was done, including in the Middle East, grave damage all over the globe. The horrors of October 7th would never have happened if I were president, the Ukraine and Russia disaster would never have happened if I were president.

Over the past months, Israel has endured a sustained aggressive and murderous assault on every front, but they fought back bravely. You see that and you know that. What we have witnessed is an all-out attack on the very existence of a Jewish state in the Jewish homeland. The Israelis have stood strong and united in the face of an enemy that has kidnapped, tortured, raped and slaughtered innocent men, women, children and even little babies.

I want to salute the Israeli people for meeting this trial with courage and determination and unflinching resolve. They have been strong. In our meetings today, the prime minister and I focused on the future, discussing how we can work together to ensure Hamas is eliminated and ultimately restore peace to a very troubled region.

It’s been troubled, but what has happened in the last four years has not been good. I want to thank Prime Minister Netanyahu for working closely with my transition team, special envoy Steve Witkoff, who is here somewhere. Steve? Stand up, Steve, please. What a job you’ve done. What a good job you’ve done.

Proud of you, you’ve done a fantastic job. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. Thank you, Mike, for working so well with us. Thank you. We have in addition, Marco Rubio, who is on the phone right now, listening to every single word that we say. And he’s going to be great. And Pete [Hegseth], congratulations. And Scott [Bessent], congratulations. I see you’re here.

And Karoline [Leavitt]’s been doing a great job. She’s really probably talked about more than anybody here. She’s done a fantastic job. And thank you very much, Karoline, we’re proud of you. But we’ll only be satisfied when all of these problems are solved, and we have the team to solve them. And that’s going to happen and it’s going to happen, I think, very quickly.

I also strongly believe that the Gaza Strip, which has been a symbol of death and destruction for so many decades and so bad for the people anywhere near it, and especially those who live there and frankly who’s been really very unlucky. It’s been very unlucky. It’s been an unlucky place for a long time.

Being in its presence just has not been good and it should not go through a process of rebuilding and occupation by the same people that have really stood there and fought for it and lived there and died there and lived a miserable existence there. Instead, we should go to other countries of interest with humanitarian hearts, and there are many of them that want to do this and build various domains that will ultimately be occupied by the million Palestinians living in Gaza, ending the death and destruction and frankly bad luck.

This can be paid for by neighboring countries of great wealth. It could be one, two, three, four, five, seven, eight, twelve. It could be numerous sites, or it could be one large site. But the people will be able to live in comfort and peace and we’ll get – we’ll make sure something really spectacular is done.

They’re going to have peace; they’re not going to be shot at and killed and destroyed like this civilization of wonderful people has had to endure. The only reason the Palestinians want to go back to Gaza is they have no alternative. It’s right now a demolition site. This is just a demolition site. Virtually every building is down.

They’re living under fallen concrete that’s very dangerous and very precarious. They instead can occupy all of a beautiful area with homes and safety and they can live out their lives in peace and harmony instead of having to go back and do it again. The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too.

We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out. Create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area. Do a real job, do something different.

Just can’t go back. If you go back, it’s going to end up the same way it has for years. I’m hopeful that this ceasefire could be the beginning of a larger and more enduring peace that will end the bloodshed and killing once and for all. With the same goal in mind, my administration has been moving quickly to restore trust in the alliance and rebuild American strength throughout the region and we’ve really done that.

We’re a respected nation again. A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks. We are actually a very respected nation again. I ended the last administration’s de facto arms embargo on over one billion dollars in military assistance for Israel. And I’m also pleased to announce that this afternoon, the United States withdrew from the antisemitic UN Human Rights Council and ended all of the support for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which funnelled money to Hamas, and which was very disloyal to humanity.

Today, I also took action to restore a maximum pressure policy on the Iranian regime and we will once again enforce the most aggressive possible sanctions, drive Iranian oil exports to zero and diminish the regime’s capacity to fund terror throughout the region and throughout the world. We had no threat when I left office.

Iran was not able to sell oil. Nobody was buying oil because I said don’t buy it. If you buy it, you’re not doing any business with the United States. And Hamas was not being funded.

Hezbollah was not being funded. Nobody was being funded. There would never have been an October 7th. Two weeks ago, I once again designated the Houthis as a terrorist organisation. They’re trying to destroy world shipping lanes. And that’s not going to happen. And over the weekend, I ordered air strikes against senior ISIS leaders hiding in the caves of Somalia, and took them out.

Here in America, we’ve begun the process of deporting foreign terrorists, jihadists and Hamas sympathisers from our soil just as we have people that are extremely evil. And we’re sending them out of our country. They came from jails. They came from mental institutions and insane asylums. And they were dumped into our country.

They’re gang members. And we’re getting them out at numbers that nobody can actually believe. And every single country is taking........

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