New Delhi: In a statement given when US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed reporters at the White House, Trump laid out a plan for the US to “take over” Gaza. He said he would be relocating Palestinians to neighboring countries, and redeveloping the war-torn Gaza Strip into a “Riviera of the Middle East.”

According to the United Nations, Israeli airstrikes have damaged or destroyed around 60 per cent of buildings, including schools and hospitals and 92 per cent of homes in the Gaza Strip. The war has taken a heavy toll on the region, with Israel’s bombardment laying waste to a major portion of the land in the Strip. Despite this, the Palestinian population that was forced to evacuate the Strip after the October 7 war is now slowly coming back to the region after the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into being.

“The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too,” Trump said, unveiling what he called his “long-term ownership” and redevelopment plan for the enclave. “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,” Trump said. Trump also did not rule out sending in US troops in aid of his plans and said that “as far as Gaza is concerned, we’ll do what is necessary.”

Trump’s comments are extremely contentious as he even rejects the idea that displaced Palestinians would want to return to Gaza.........

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