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Donald Trump says he wants US ‘to buy and own Gaza’
President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he is committed to the US buying and owning Gaza but could allow sections of the land to be rebuilt by states in the Middle East.
While travelling on Air Force One to the Super Bowl in New Orleans, Mr Trump told reporters he wants to make sure that Palestinian militant group Hamas “doesn’t move back”.
“There’s nothing to move back into. The place is a demolition site. The remainder will be demolished. Everything’s demolished,” he added.
Mr Trump also said that he was open to the possibility of allowing some Palestinian refugees into the US, but would consider such requests on a case-by-case basis.
The President also said he was losing patience with the ceasefire deal after seeing video of the latest release of hostages by Hamas.
“They look like Holocaust survivors. They were in horrible condition. They were emaciated,” he said. “I don’t know how much longer we can take that … at some point we’re going to lose our patience.”
“I know we have a deal … they dribble in and keep dribbling in … but they are in really bad shape,” Mr Trump said of the Israeli hostages.
Earlier on Sunday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog told Fox News that Mr Trump was to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and possibly Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Mr Trump is also receiving King Abdullah II of Jordan to the White House on Tuesday, officials have confirmed.
The President’s plan to redevelop Gaza and remove more than two million Palestinians, made at a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, caused international outrage and angered the Arab world. It made it even more challenging for Saudi Arabia to contemplate establishing ties with Israel.
After his return from Washington and in an address to his cabinet, Mr Netanyahu on Sunday praised Mr Trump’s proposals, calling it “revolutionary”.
“President Trump came with a completely different, much better vision for Israel – a revolutionary, creative approach that we are currently discussing,” he said
Egypt and Jordan dismissed Mr Trump’s call to resettle 1.8 million Palestinians from Gaza and for the US to take ownership of the enclave, but he claims they would eventually accept it.
“President Trump is due to meet major, major Arab leaders, first and foremost the King of Jordan and the President of Egypt and I think also the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia as well,” Mr Herzog said about Mr Trump’s recently unveiled proposal.
“These are partners that must be listened to, they must be discussed with. We have to honour their feelings as well and see how we build a plan that is sustainable for the future.”
In a strongly worded statement on Sunday, the Saudi Foreign Ministry accused Israel of “continuous crimes” and “ethnic cleansing” of the Palestinian people after comments made by Mr Netanyahu to an Israeli TV channel that “the Saudis can create a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia. They have a lot of land over there”.
In the same statement, Saudi Arabia rejected Mr Netanyahu’s comment that normalisation was “going to happen”, repeating its insistence there would be no ties without a Palestinian state.
In the UAE, Khalifa Al Marar, Minister of State, expressed his country’s full solidarity with Saudi Arabia and said the kingdom’s sovereignty is a “red line”.
THE NATIONAL NEWS