President Donald Trump said during his Oval Office meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Tuesday that he would like to relocate the entire population of Gaza.
“All of them, we’re talking about probably 1.7 million people,” Trump said when asked how many Gazans he would like to resettle. “I think they’ll be resettled in areas where they can live a beautiful life and not be worried about dying every day.”
Trump says he wants to permanently resettle all Gazans:
“I think they’ll be resettled in areas where they can live a beautiful life and not be worried about dying every day.” pic.twitter.com/amrr8WWwam
— Kassy Akiva (@KassyAkiva) February 4, 2025
Trump doubled down on his claim that Egypt and Jordan would not oppose his proposal to relocate Gazan refugees to their countries, despite leaders in both nations rejecting the idea.
“They won’t tell me no. I want to remove all the residents of Gaza,” he responded. “It will happen.”
He called Gaza a “demolition site.”
“I mean, there is hardly a building standing and the ones that are are going to collapse,” Trump said. “You can’t live in Gaza right now and I think we need another location and I think it should be a location that is going to make people happy. You look over the decades and it’s all death in Gaza. This has been happening for years. It’s all death.”
He added that he believes people are only in Gaza because there is no alternative.
“I think that Gaza has been very unlucky for them,” Trump said. “If they had an alternative, they’d much rather not go back to Gaza and live in a beautiful, alternative that is safe.”
Trump also said he does not support Israel building settlements in Gaza again, because he thinks Gaza isn’t a place for anyone to live.
President Donald Trump greets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House: pic.twitter.com/QCoo9lfbU5
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Trump said Gazans could also be resettled in several areas that would be built by other wealthy nations, who he says are willing to help.
“Gaza is a guarantee that they are going to end up dying. The same thing is going to happen again. It’s happened over and over again and it’s going to happen again.”
Trump said the Saudis are not demanding a Palestinian state in exchange for normalized relations with Israel.
“Everyone is demanding one thing and you know what that is? Peace,” Trump said.
Netanyahu’s visit comes as Trump helped to negotiate the release of hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza. So far, 13 of the 33 hostages slated to be released under the first phase of the deal have been freed, including American citizen Keith Siegel. Seven more Americans are still held hostage. An additional five Thai hostages were released under a separate agreement.
Netanyahu was the first world leader to meet with Trump at the White House during his second term.
