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Donald Trump said that the Gaza Strip would be given to the United States by Israel only after the fighting had stopped in the territory torn by the war and that no American troop would be necessary to maintain stability.
The American president made his last announcement on the proposal to resume Gaza on Thursday, one day after the allies at the house, in the Middle East and in Europe, had opposed his plans and the White House sought to ensure the fears of prolonged military intervention.
“The Gaza Strip would be given to the United States by Israel at the end of the fighting,” said Trump in a post on his social platform of truth. He added that the Palestinian people “have already been resettled in much safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern houses, in the region”.
He said that the United States, working with teams of “all over the world”, “would slowly and carefully start building what would become one of the biggest and most spectacular developments of this type on Earth ».
Trump’s announcement on Tuesday that the United States would take control of Gaza and use force if necessary, triggered an uproar in the Arab world, with officials from the whole region warning that any forced displacement of Palestinians would violate international law and would feed regional instability.
This also aroused criticism from some of Trump’s national allies, some Republicans saying that he has moved away from his “America First” program and his long -standing objection to American intervention in foreign wars ” ».
“I thought we had voted for America first,” a republican senator from Kentucky said on Wednesday. “We have no deal of considering another occupation to condemn our treasure and reverse the blood of our soldiers.”
But Israeli officials welcomed the idea, the Minister of Defense, Israel Katz, said on Thursday morning that he had ordered the soldiers to prepare a plan that would allow the Gazans to leave “voluntarily”. Katz said that this would include options to go out by land, sea and air, but has given no other details.
Ha Helyer, principal researcher at the Royal United Services Institute, said that Katz’s plan had increased pressure on Egypt and was “a clear signal” for Cairo, the Palestinians and aimed at national public opinion in Israel.
“The Israeli government thinks they have a certain momentum with Trump but do not know how it will continue to put pressure on the movement of Gaza Palestinians,” he said. “He maintains the pressure and excludes any type of political process for the Palestinians. It is a question of reorganizing the goal posts and of keeping everyone unbalanced. »»
Trump’s announcement came while Israel and Hamas were to start talks on the second phase of a fragile agreement led by the United States which interrupted the devastating war in Gaza after 15 months of fighting and started the release of hostages still held by Hamas in Hamas in Hamas in Hamas L’Inclave.
Under the terms of the agreement, which entered into force almost three weeks ago, Hamas is expected to release a total of 33 hostages in early March in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
In the second phase, the details of which must still have agreed, Hamas is supposed to release all the remaining living hostages in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, the complete withdrawal of the Israeli Gaza forces and a permanent end to the fighting.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under pressure from the far -right members of his coalition to resume war, promised this week that Israel would resume fights to destroy Hamas. The militant group has reaffirmed control of the band’s parts since the fighting has stopped.
EU’s foreign affairs spokesman Anouar El Anouni said Thursday that if the three-week truce was a “positive development”, it was crucial that “the next stages were taken to end hostilities and to stability and peace in the region “.
Additional report by Jonathan Wheatley in London and Laura Dubois in Brussels. Cartography by Aditi Bhandari
