For Donald Trump, the Palestinians “love” leave Gaza

Near East
For Donald Trump, the Palestinians “love” leave Gaza
President Donald Trump said, receiving Benyamin Netanyahu in Washington, that the Palestinians would be “delighted” to go elsewhere.
US President Donald Trump meets Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu at the White House in Washington on February 4, 2025.
AFP
Donald Trump persists and signs: the Palestinians “would love to leave” the devastated Gaza Strip, he said Tuesday by receiving Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, when delicate negotiations take up the pursuit of the ceasefire- fire between Israel and Hamas.
The American president, who spoke of making “cleaning” in the Palestinian territory ravaged by fifteen months of war, said that the Palestinians lived “in hell” and would be “delighted” to go elsewhere if they had the opportunity , evoking a “demolition site”.
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“You can’t live there,” he said from the oval office alongside Benyamin Netanyahu. “I hope we can do something really good, really good, where they will not want to come back,” said Donald Trump. “Why would they want to come back?” This place was a real hell. ”
Inhabitable
A Hamas leader, Sami Abu Zuhri, castigated Donald Trump’s statements, believing that they were a “recipe for creating chaos” in the Middle East.
His emissary for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, had previously judged that the Palestinian territory would be uninhabitable for years, seeming to question the feasibility of the third phase of the truce agreement, that of the reconstruction of Gaza in five years .
After praising his role in the agreement, Donald Trump had to press his ally to respect the ceasefire in force since January 19 for a first phase of six weeks, but whose next steps remain uncertain.
Indignation
Hamas announced Tuesday that “contacts and negotiations for the second phase” of the ceasefire had “started”. Israel had announced earlier that he would send a delegation to Qatar to “at the end of the week”, one of the three mediating countries with the United States and Egypt, to discuss the pursuit of the truce.
Questioned by AFP on his optimism about the transition to this second phase, Benyamin Netanyahou said: “We are going to try”. “This is one of the things we are going to talk about. When Israel and the United States work together, and President Trump and I are working together, the chances are increasing a lot, “he said.
Donald Trump recently aroused a wave of international indignation by offering to “simply clean up” in the Gaza Strip and transfer its inhabitants to “safer” places such as Egypt or Jordan. These two countries have opposed this plan.
“Rooted in his land”
“When the president talks about‹ doing the cleaning ›, he talks about making (Gaza) habitable,” Steve Witkoff said on Tuesday, adding that it “is unfair to have explained to the Palestinians that they could return in five years. It is simply grotesque ”.
“Phase three, reconstruction, will not be able to take place as provided for in the agreement, that is to say a five-year program. It is physically impossible, ”he said. Trump’s emissary also said that he would meet in Florida on Thursday, Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed Ben Abdelrahmane Al-Thani.
But in the Gaza Strip, many Palestinians moved by the war took advantage of the truce to find their land, determined to rebuild. More than half a million of them have already returned to the north of the territory, particularly destroyed by the fighting.
“Maximum pressure”
Benyamin Netanyahu is the first foreign leader invited to the White House since the return to power of Donald Trump on January 20, a symbol of the unwavering alliance between Israel and the United States.
Besides Gaza, the American president should also approach with his guest the question of normalizing relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which he had already worked during his first mandate, as well as the Iranian threat. Donald Trump also promised Tuesday to exert “maximum pressure” on Iran, notably aimed at its nuclear program.
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