President Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that displaced Palestinians be permanently resettled outside Gaza and proposed the U.S. take “ownership” in redeveloping the area. His remarks drew swift opposition and were certain to roil the ceasefire talks between Hamas and Israel.
Trump outlined his thinking as he held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. Netanyahu is facing competing pressure from his right-wing coalition to end a temporary truce against Hamas militants in Gaza and from war-weary Israelis who want the remaining hostages home and for the war to end.
The first phase of the ceasefire began last month, and Hamas said Tuesday it had begun talks with international mediators in the second phase of the negotiations. The first phase halted fighting, allowed more humanitarian aid into Gaza and exchanged Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages taken during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that started the war.
The negotiations for the second phase of the ceasefire were expected to be much more difficult. The later negotiations were likely to include further hostage and prisoner releases, an indefinite extension of the truce and who will govern Gaza after hostilities end.
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WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says his government continues to support a two-state solution in the Middle East, “where both Israelis and Palestinians could live in peace and security."
“We’ve supported a ceasefire, we’ve supported hostages being released and we’ve supported aid getting into Gaza,” he told reporters Wednesday in Canberra when asked about Trump's remarks. “That is consistent with what Australia governments have always done, which is to provide support.”
Albanese did not directly respond to reporters’ questions about how he would characterize Trump’s Gaza plan.
“I’m not going to have a running commentary on statements by the president of the United States,” he said. “I’ve made that very clear.”
President Donald Trump's proposal to resettle Palestinians out of Gaza upset a Middle East still shaken by the Israel-Hamas war.
The pan-Arab broadcaster Al Jazeera, based in Qatar which has been a key negotiator for the ceasefire holding in the war, called Trump’s comments a “shock announcement.”
Hamas says it rejects Trump's suggestion that Gaza residents should leave the territory.
“Instead of holding the Zionist occupation accountable for the crime of genocide and displacement, it is being rewarded, not punished,” Hamas said in a statement. “We reject Trump’s statements in which he said that the residents of the Gaza Strip have no choice but to leave, and we consider them a recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region.”
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The reaction came swiftly in the Mideast from President Donald Trump’s suggestion of the U.S. taking over the Gaza Strip. In Saudi Arabia, its Foreign Ministry issued a sharply worded statement early Wednesday that their long call for an independent Palestinian state was a “firm, steadfast and unwavering position.”
The statement noted Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s de facto ruler, has said that “Saudi Arabia will not stop its tireless work towards the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital, and that the kingdom will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that.”
Saudi Arabia has been in negotiations with the U.S. over a deal to diplomatically recognize Israel in exchange for a security pact and other terms.
“The kingdom of Saudi Arabia also stresses what it had previously announced regarding its absolute rejection of infringement on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, whether through Israeli settlement policies, annexation of Palestinian lands or efforts to displace the Palestinian people from their land,” the statement added. “The duty of the international community today is to work to alleviate the severe human suffering endured by the Palestinian people, who will remain committed to their land and will not budge from it.”
It added: “This firm position is not subject to negotiation or outbidding.”
The kingdom has supported the Palestinians having an independent state comprised of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with east Jerusalem as their capital. It’s a stance the wider Mideast holds on the conflict.
— Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump suggested that displaced Palestinians in Gaza be permanently resettled outside the war-torn territory and proposed the U.S. take “ownership” in redeveloping the area.
Trump’s proposal appears certain to roil the talks meant to extend the tenuous ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and secure the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza.
Talks are ramping up this week for sending more humanitarian aid and reconstruction supplies to help the people of Gaza recover from the war. Now Trump wants to push roughly 1.8 million people to leave the land they have called home and claim it for the U.S., perhaps with American troops.
Trump outlined his thinking as he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
“I don’t think people should be going back,” Trump said. “You can’t live in Gaza right now. I think we need another location. I think it should be a location that’s going to make people happy.”
Trump said the U.S. would take ownership of the Gaza Strip and redevelop it after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere. “We’ll make sure that it’s done world class,” Trump said.
Egypt, Jordan and other U.S. allies in the Mideast have cautioned Trump that relocating Palestinians from Gaza would threaten Mideast stability and risk expanding the conflict.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Hamas’ military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, held a funeral Tuesday for Ghazi Abu Tamaa, its weapons and combat services commander who was killed during the war in Gaza.
Associated Press footage showed al-Qassam fighters riding in multiple vehicles, raising their rifles in tribute and playing music while carrying a poster bearing his image. Multiple mourners fired shots into the air as others carried his casket to a courtyard, where relatives gathered as they cried and prayed for him.
The group’s spokesperson, Abu Obeida, confirmed Abu Tamaa’s death as well as the death of senior leader Mohammed Deif in a video statement Thursday. The spokesperson didn’t provide details about their deaths.
The Israeli military had previously said that Abu Tamaa was killed in an airstrike in March of last year along with Marwan Issa, al-Qassam's deputy leader.
BEIRUT — Qatar’s prime minister reaffirmed his country’s commitment to supporting the Lebanese army during a visit to Beirut on Tuesday.
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani's remarks came after meeting Lebanon’s president, former army commander Joseph Aoun, whose election in January ended a two-year presidential vacuum.
Qatar has been a source of support for Lebanon’s military in recent years, particularly as the army struggled with unpaid salaries amid the country's ongoing economic crisis.
“We look forward to working on joint projects between the two countries after forming the government,” Thani, who is also Qatar's foreign minister, said in a news conference alongside his Lebanese counterpart. “Our visit today is a support visit from the State of Qatar, which always stands by Lebanon and its people.”
Thani did not specify which sectors Qatar would invest in, but in 2022, Qatar joined TotalEnergies and Eni in offshore gas exploration off the coast of Lebanon.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Large piles of garbage have risen among the rubble from destroyed buildings in Gaza City — another sign of the difficulties Palestinians face as they return to homes under the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
Associated Press footage this week showed hills of garbage lining streets in Gaza City. Children picked through one pile, searching for food or anything of use for their families.
“It spreads disease among people and itching and coughing among children,” resident Abu Saad Saleh said. “People burn it and the smoke enters our homes. It has destroyed us. For God’s sake, remove this garbage from us.”
Much of Gaza City and surrounding areas of north Gaza were decimated by repeated Israeli offensives against Hamas militants during 15 months of war. Municipal services like garbage collection collapsed early on.
With the start of the ceasefire, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled south have returned to Gaza City. Many have nowhere to live after homes were destroyed, water is in short supply and electricity is nearly nonexistent.
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says two soldiers were killed and eight wounded in a shooting attack on an army post in the West Bank.
The military had reported the attack earlier Tuesday, saying the shooter was killed without immediately providing details on its own casualties.
Israel has been carrying out a major military operation in the city of Jenin, near to where the attack took place. The military says it is trying to clamp down on Palestinian militants.
The West Bank has seen a surge in violence since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of Gaza triggered the war there.
The Israeli military has carried out near-daily arrest raids that often spark gunbattles. There has also been a rise in Palestinian attacks on Israelis and settler violence against Palestinians.
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state.
JERUSALEM — Hamas officials say they’ve begun talks with international mediators over the second phase of the ceasefire while claiming Israel hasn’t abided by some of the terms of the first phase.
Abdel-Latif al-Qanoua, a spokesperson for the militant group, said Tuesday that it had started “communications and negotiations” over the next phase, which is expected to include further hostage releases and Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
The group also claimed in a statement Tuesday that Israel had delayed and obstructed the flow of aid into the enclave.
"What has been implemented in these aspects is much less than what was agreed on,” Hazem Qassam, the group's spokesperson, said in a statement.
Negotiations of the ceasefire’s second phase were set to begin Monday. Netanyahu’s office said Tuesday that he would send a delegation to Qatar this weekend to continue negotiations.
The second phase is expected to be more difficult to negotiate than the first phase agreement. Israel has said it won’t agree to a complete withdrawal from Gaza until Hamas’ military and political capabilities are eliminated. Hamas says it won’t hand over the last hostages until Israel removes all troops from the territory.
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The Palestinian Authority says it has formed a committee to manage reconstruction and recovery efforts in the Gaza Strip.
It was unclear if the committee would be able to operate inside Gaza. Hamas, though weakened, still controls most of the territory, and Israel has ruled out any role for the Western-backed Palestinian Authority in postwar Gaza.
The office of Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa said during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday that officials set up a working group “to manage the affairs of the Gaza Strip.” The committee would work to provide basic services like water, electricity, health and education, specifically in the southern Gaza Strip, with the help of “various partners,” the statement said, without elaborating.
A Palestinian official, who was not authorized to brief media and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the working group would be made up of technocrats, including independent figures from Gaza.
Hamas, which won parliamentary elections in 2006, drove the Palestinian Authority’s forces from Gaza the following year in a week of street battles.
It’s unclear where the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, fits into Trump’s plans for the region.
— By Isabel DeBre
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey will host 15 Palestinian prisoners who were released and deported as part of the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel.
The Turkish intelligence organization, MIT, is taking steps to facilitate the arrival of the 15 Palestinians from Egypt, the state-run Anadolu Agency said Tuesday.
Arrangements were made to ensure the Palestinians can live “peacefully and securely” in Turkey, Anadolu said.
The news agency did not name the Palestinians that Ankara was preparing to take in. Those who were deported have been convicted of serious crimes.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Sunday that Turkey was prepared to support the Palestinian people, including providing medical treatment for those wounded in the conflict and taking in released prisoners who would be deported from the region.
Unlike its Western allies, Turkey does not consider Hamas to be a terror organization. A strong critic of Israel’s military actions in Gaza, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has hosted several Hamas officials over the years.
JERUSALEM — Family members of Thai hostages released by Hamas last week after over 15 months of captivity in the Gaza Strip have visited them at the Israeli hospital where they are recuperating.
The Thai Embassy in Israel said the family members flew in Tuesday and met with the freed hostages at the Shamir Medical Center.
Hamas released five Thai hostages last week along with three Israeli captives who were freed as part of a ceasefire agreement in exchange for 110 Palestinian prisoners.
Hamas militants kidnapped 31 Thai nationals along with scores of Israelis and a few other foreigners during its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.
Tens of thousands of Thai farmers work in Israel, where they can make higher wages than they can at home. Many lived in compounds on the outskirts of southern Israeli farming communities and towns that were overrun by Hamas-led militants.
During an earlier ceasefire in November 2023, 23 Thai nationals were released in a deal negotiated between Thailand and Hamas, with assistance from Qatar and Iran.
