On his inauguration day on January 20, Donald Trump made the comments that the Gaza Strip was a “phenomenal location” where “beautiful things could be done. He then made a nearly off-the-cuff suggestion on January 26 that Palestinians should be relocated to Egypt and Jordan to “just clean out” the enclave, which he made on Air Force One.
Given that Trump continued to make sporadic comments on the subject, it was unclear whether this was a serious suggestion or whether any displacement of Palestinians would be temporary or permanent.
But then, on Tuesday, appearing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House – in the first official visit by a foreign leader since the new president’s inauguration – Trump dropped a bombshell, declaring that the US would “take over” and “own” Gaza, hoping that Palestinians there would “go to other countries” in what would essentially amount to ethnic cleansing.
On Wednesday, his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said that Trump had not committed to US troops on the ground in Gaza, and that the people living there would be “temporarily relocated”, while providing few other details about a plan that has been widely rejected by Palestinians, Arab states – including Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia – and many countries internationally.
Here’s all you need to know about Trump’s proposal and if he’s serious or if his plan is even possible.
Why did Trump make his Gaza announcement? And what is his real desire?
Determining Trump’s true intentions are often difficult. It can be difficult to tell the difference between the end goal and the starting position when the author of the book The Art of the Deal takes pride in having a strong negotiating acumen.
“Trying to psychoanalyse Donald Trump is an exercise in futility”, Jasmine el-Gamal, a Middle East policy analyst, told Al Jazeera. “Nobody knows what’s in Trump’s head”.
She continued, “It’s hard to imagine him believing]the US] can go in, push out people, and as Trump said, invite the ‘ world’s people ‘ to live there. It’s utterly fantasy; in the meantime, it’s crucial to keep trying to not normalize these ideas but to examine the reality behind Arab positions.
After voicing their anger at his support for a ceasefire to end Israel’s occupation of Gaza, the announcement may serve as an attempt to cheer up the far-right group there.
The plan, which Trump’s National Security Advisor Mike Waltz described as potentially one of many, could also be seen as an attempt to force Arab nations to fund the reconstruction of Gaza. “]Trump’s announcement] is going to bring the entire region to come up with their own solutions”, Waltz said.
Is it possible for the US to seize control of Gaza?
Even his most fervent supporters were shocked by Trump’s statements, and el-Gamal cited Republican South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham as an example. Graham doubted support, even from Trump’s Make America Great Again base, for US troops on the ground in Gaza, a point made by several other Republicans.
The reality is that 2 million Palestinians would be forced to leave their land, with the majority of them unable to move, as evidenced by the immediate resumption of the conflict by hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who had been displaced to the south of the territory.
Palestinians in Gaza face undoubtedly armed opposition to any attempts to ethnically cleanse them, and despite Israel’s 15-month battles, which resulted in the deaths of more than 61, 000 Palestinians, Gaza’s army has been unable to neutralize Palestinian resistance forces.
Hamas has reportedly recruited as many fighters as it lost and repaired a large portion of its infrastructure, despite suffering losses.
There are many reasons why the Palestinians’ mass expulsion from Gaza, according to Tariq Kenney-Shawa, a US policy fellow at the Palestinian think tank Al-Shabaka, would not go as planned and would undermine the president’s ability to achieve objectives like normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
The US “taking control” of Gaza would “fly up against the very heart of America First principles,” Kenney-Shawa said. “This would not only further impede the chances that US interests in the region are being realized, but it would also do so.”
Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, a strident US isolationist who is popular among Trump’s base, made that point in a social media post on Wednesday, saying, “I thought we voted for America First. We should not be thinking about a second occupation that will endanger our country’s treasure and contaminate our soldiers.
Sami Hamdi, a journalist, adviser and political consultant, said that it was difficult to imagine Trump’s supporters backing the presence of US troops in Gaza. Trump may instead advocate for a compromise that would create a regional “peacekeeping” force to contain Gaza, he said.
What is the position of the US’s Arab allies?
El-Gamal remarked that Trump’s regional allies quickly and categorically rejected the proposal.
At 4:30 a.m., Saudi Arabia declared in a statement that it was “so intent on broadcasting the same message.” They didn’t wait until business hours to say it’s a non-starter”, el-Gamal said. What is the substitute for this plan, since it cannot be done without Arab states’ consent and participation?
Next week, Jordan’s King Abdullah will make a visit to the White House. Leavitt, a press secretary, has suggested that the monarch may reconsider his position and accept Palestinian refugees from Gaza, just as other world leaders have resisted Trump in confrontation.
Is it revolutionary to invade Gaza from abroad?
Israeli politicians have long envisioned capturing Gaza.
Before ex-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon moved them out in 2005, Israel had previously established illegal settlements in Gaza. Since then, Israel has ratcheted up its illegal settlements in West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Sharon argued that Jewish Israelis would never make up the majority in Gaza, which was a justification for the disengagement of Gaza. Israel, however, did continue to control access to Gaza and airspace over it, enforcing a siege from 2007 that led to the enclave being compared to an “open-air prison”.
A leaked document from Israel’s Ministry of Intelligence suggested that Palestinians should move into Egypt’s Sinai Desert at the start of the conflict in Gaza.
Although Netanyahu downplayed the idea in public because ethnic cleansing is against international law, his supporters, including ministers in charge, have continued to push the idea. And following Trump’s announcement, Israelis from across the political spectrum welcomed the idea.
“This idea is so nonsensical, but it is what the Israelis have been pushing for quite some time”, said Diana Buttu, a former adviser with the Palestinian Liberation Organisation and expert on Israel-Palestine.
“It’s not unique to Trump”, she told Al Jazeera.
How does Trump benefit?
In March 2024, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner suggested that Israel should remove the Palestinian population from Gaza and clean out the Strip, saying that “Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable”.
Israel supports the former and opposes the latter, adding that the population could be transported to either Egypt or the Naqab (Negev) desert in southern Israel.
According to analysts, Kushner is a real estate mogul who was given the task of overseeing the Israel-Palestine peace process, which had been effectively abandoned for about 20 years during Trump’s first presidential term.
During his recent address, Trump echoed some of Kushner’s sentiments.
“]We’ll] make it into an international, unbelievable place. I think the potential for the Gaza Strip is unbelievable”, he said.
“And I think the entire world, representatives from all over the world, will be there and they’ll live there”, he added.
Buttu believes that Trump is disregarding the wellbeing of the Palestinians, their history or culture.
Who are you telling us we want a Middle Eastern Riviera that completely disregards our past? she argued.
“]The majority] of Gaza’s population is not even from the Gaza Strip and they just want to go back to their homes]in what is today Israel]. Why isn’t that a more practical option”?
Is Trump’s plan part of Netanyahu’s goal to eradicate Hamas?
True, the “eradication” of Hamas is often cited as a goal and a reason for the destruction being meted on Gaza, but observers say Israel’s real motivations are different.
“The Israelis used this as a pretext to be certain,” the statement read. They have always vehemently opposed any kind of “goddess’ claim” to Gaza. The political consultant Hamdi claimed that this happened well before October 2023.
“In that regard, the Israelis welcome Trump’s announcement]about expelling all the people in Gaza]. However, Trump also imposed a ceasefire, which is not what a lot of Israelis wanted at all. According to my instinct, Trump wants to find a way to leave Gaza without a war and doesn’t want to continue with it.
Hamdi also doubted that Hamas could be totally eradicated.
“Many people still support Hamas. We saw that after the ceasefire. Hamas is merely a more recent manifestation of the concept of “resistance,” according to him, and the term “resistance” dates back to when Palestinians try to stop Israel’s relentless drive to remove them from their homes.
