President Donald Trump said explicitly in an interview this weekend that Palestinians would not have a right to return to Gaza under his plan to take US ownership of the strip and rebuild it.
“No, they wouldn’t,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News when asked whether the Palestinians would have a right to return. “Because they will have much better housing. Much better – in other words, I’m talking about building a permanent place for them.”
Trump’s assertion that Palestinians wouldn’t be entitled to return to Gaza is certain to deepen international opposition to the proposal, which drew outcry when he first announced it last week at a news conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Afterward, some Trump aides sought to soften or clarify aspects of the plan. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Trump was proposing only a temporary relocation of Palestinians while Gaza was being rebuilt.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was traveling in Latin America when Trump revealed his idea, suggested the resettlements from Gaza would be only on an interim basis.
“What he 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 of homes and businesses and things of this nature, so that then people can move back in,” Rubio said last week.
Yet Trump himself, in comments afterward, did anything but retreat. He told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday that he viewed the war-torn region as a “big real estate site.”
