Trump claims Palestinians have ‘no alternative’ but to leave Gaza before his meeting with Netanyahu

Just ahead of his meeting Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Donald Trump said that Palestinians had “no alternative” but to leave their homes in Gaza.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump called Gaza, which has been decimated by the Israel-Hamas war, a “demolition site” and suggested that its inhabitants would be “thrilled” to live elsewhere.

“I don’t how they could want to stay. It’s a demolition site,” he said, adding going to a new piece of land “would be a lot better than going back to Gaza, which has had decades and decades of death.”

Asked if that would mean forcibly displacing people, Trump said, “I don’t think so. I think if they had the opportunity, if they had an alternative — they have no alternative right now. They’re there because they have no alternative. What do they have? It’s a big pile of rubble right now. Who can live like that?”

“I think they’d be thrilled to do it,” he said, adding that right now, “they don’t have an option.”

Trump said he believes the Palestinians would be better off moving to neighboring Egypt or Jordan, a proposal the countries and others in the area have already rejected. “I think they should get a good, fresh, beautiful piece of land,” he said of the Palestinians. “The Gaza thing has not worked.”

A spokesman for Hamas, Sami Abu Zuhri, blasted Trump’s remarks, saying “we consider it a recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region.” “Our people in the Gaza Strip will not allow these plans to pass, and what is required is to end the occupation and aggression against our people, not expel them from their land,” he said.

Trump made the remarks shortly before greeting Netanyahu for a meeting at the White House, his first sitdown with a foreign leader since the start of his second term.

“He’s here to see me and I’m here to listen,” Trump told reporters.

Trump previewed the discussion at the White House as a “very big meeting” when he was speaking to reporters Sunday. In his letter inviting Netanyahu to Washington last week, he wrote, “I look forward to discussing how we can bring peace to Israel and its neighbors, and efforts to counter our shared adversaries.”

Netanyahu said Sunday that they will discuss “the critical issues that lie ahead of us — defeating Hamas, returning all our hostages and dealing with the Iranian axis in all its components, an axis that also threatens Israel’s security, the Middle East and the entire world.”

The two are scheduled to meet at 4 p.m. ET and then hold a joint press conference about an hour later.

Trump’s transition team helped the Biden administration secure a ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and the militant group Hamas. The next phase of the agreement is expected to be one of the topics the two leaders discuss Tuesday.

The conflict began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a terrorist attack on Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage. Israel retaliated with an air and land assault on Gaza, killing more than 47,000 people, most of them civilians, according to local officials. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced.

The scale of Israeli counteroffensive has led to international condemnation, but Netanyahu has defended his actions, most recently en route to Washington.

“The decisions we have made during the war, combined with the heroism of the IDF soldiers, they have already changed the face of the Middle East. They have changed it beyond recognition. I think that by working hard with President Trump, we can change it even more, for the better,” Netanyahu said.

Trump had said he wants Jordan and Egypt to accept more Palestinian refugees as part of an effort to “clean out” Gaza.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the meeting, Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, said the president was referring to making the area “habitable.” He also said the 5-year timeline to rebuild Gaza in a future phase of the ceasefire deal was unrealistic and “preposterous.” National security adviser Mike Waltz said rebuilding would likely take up to 15 years.

“There’s 30,000 unexploded munitions” in Gaza, Witkoff added. “It is the buildings that could tip over at any moment. There’s no utilities there whatsoever, no, no working water, electric, gas, nothing. God knows what kind of disease might be festering there. “

Netanyahu and Trump were close allies during Trump’s first term in office, but their relationship became strained after Netanyahu congratulated Joe Biden on winning the 2020 election while Trump was still challenging the results.

Just days after the Oct. 7 attack, Trump told a crowd at a campaign rally that Netanyahu had “let us down” during his first administration, arguing that he had been unhelpful before the United States killed a top Iranian general. That led to criticism from his Republican rivals, and Trump later posted on social media, “#IStandWithIsrael” and “#IStandWithBibi,” using Netanyahu’s nickname.

Their relationship appeared mended in July when Netanyahu visited Trump at his Florida residence after having met with Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and after a failed attempt on Trump’s life.

Netanyahu said Sunday that the “fact that this will be [Trump’s] first meeting with a foreign leader since his inauguration has great significance for the state of Israel” and “testifies to the strength of the alliance between Israel and the United States.”

The trip is far from Netanyahu’s first trip to the White House.

When he was welcomed Monday at Blair House, the historic official guest residence of the White House, its director said it was Netanyahu’s 14th visit to the residence — many more than any other foreign leader has made since it was built in the 19th century.