US President Donald Trump (R) in a joint press conference with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on February 4, 2025. | X (@WhiteHouse)
In a major announcement likely to send shockwaves around the world, US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (February 4) said that the United States will ‘take over the Gaza Strip’. He was speaking in a joint press conference with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington DC.
“The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it. We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site and getting rid of the destroyed buildings. Create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area,” said Trump.
The US president also said that the current ceasefire would represent beginning of a ‘more enduring peace’
“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,” said Trump during the press conference.
It was a day of bombshell announcements. On Tuesday, Trump also announced that US was leaving the ‘anti-semitic’ United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) and the UNRWA (UNRWA). The latter has drawn a lot of criticism in past after allegations of having links with Hamas, the Palestinian militant group. In his announcements, Trump was hawkish on Iran as well.
“I’m also pleased to announce that this afternoon the United States withdrew from the anti-semitic 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 our 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 the world,” he said during the press conference.
About Gaza, he made some bold assertions that raised questions if he sees Gaza residents continue to live in the enclave.
“I don’t think people should be going back to Gaza,” Trump said in the Oval Office as quoted by CNN. “I heard that Gaza has been very unlucky for them. They live like hell. They live like they’re living in hell. Gaza is not a place for people to be living, and the only reason they want to go back, and I believe this strongly, is because they have no alternative.”
“I do see a long-term ownership position, and I see it bringing great stability to that part of the Middle East, and maybe the entire Middle East,” Trump told reporters in the East Room of the White House.
He said later: “This was not a decision made lightly. Everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent.”
