Why does Donald Trump want to take over Gaza and could he do it?

Suggestion by President Donald Trump The United States could “take over” and “own” Gaza, reinstalling its population in the process, has been hung on shock and conviction.

The comments arise as an current cease-fire between Hamas and Israel, and in the midst of questions about the post-conflict future of Gaza.

The UN estimates that around two thirds of the buildings have been destroyed or damaged after 15 months of fighting.

Trump’s vague proposal could report the greatest change in American policy in the Middle East for decades, which has upset a generalized international consensus on the need for a Palestinian state – composed of Gaza and the occupied West Bank – D ‘Exist alongside Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the idea “was worth paying attention”, but was refused by the Arab nations and some American allies.

If Donald Trump is right about one thing, it is because decades of American diplomacy on Israel and the Palestinians have failed to resolve the conflict.

The peace proposals and the presidents have come and disappeared, but the problems happened. The attack on Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023 and the war in Gaza that he triggered were the hideous results.

Trump made his millions as a real estate developer and, with this hat, has made a perfectly valid observation: if Gaza must be rebuilt, from zero in certain places, he does not make sense for hundreds of thousands of civilians to shelter in the rubble.

The task of rebuilding Gaza will be monumental. Munitions and non -exploded mountains of debris must be removed. The water and electric lines must be repaired. Schools, hospitals and stores must be rebuilt.

Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said it could take years – and even if it happens, the Palestinians will have to go somewhere.

However, rather than exploring means to keep them near their home, almost certainly in the camps of the central and southern parts of the Gaza Strip, Trump says that they should be encouraged to leave permanently.

Trump believes that in their absence, a “riviera of the idyllic Middle East”, belonging to the Americans, which will rise from the ashes, offering thousands of jobs, investment opportunities and, ultimately, a place where “the people of the world to live “.

Where to start?

Even for a president who spent a large part of his first mandate upset the American policy of the Middle East-including the displacement of the Embassy of the United States of Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and the recognition of Israeli sovereignty on Heights of Golan Occupied – It was an amazing proposal.

In their craziest imagination, no American president has never thought that the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would implies taking over a piece of Palestinian territory and avoiding its population.

To be clear, doing it by force would be a serious violation of international law.

Some Palestinians would probably choose to leave Gaza and rebuild their lives elsewhere. From October 2023, up to 150,000.

But others cannot or will not do it either because they do not have the financial means to do so or because their attachment to Gaza – part of the land they call Palestine – is simply Too strong.

Many gas are ancestors of people who fled or were driven from their homes in 1948 when the State of Israel is created – a Palestinian period called the Nakba, the Arabic word for the disaster.

The thought of another will be too painful for many and they will cling to their reduced life in what remains of Gaza with fierce determination.

For the Palestinians who dream of a separate state, alongside Israel, the loss of a part of it will resemble an amputation.

Gaza has been physically separated from the West Bank since 1948. Series of previous negotiations, as well as the “vision of peace” of Trump 2020, included plans of tunnels or railways which could connect the two.

Now Trump essentially says to the Palestinians to abandon once and for all Gaza.

Although it does not seem to defend the forced expulsion of civilians – which is contrary to international law – Trump clearly encourages the Palestinians to leave.

Palestinian officials have already accused Israel of having blocked the offer of tens of thousands of caravans which could help the Gazans to remain in less damaged parts of the territory while the reconstruction takes place elsewhere.

The Arab countries which, according to Trump, should accept up to 1.8 million refugees from Gazan, mainly in Egypt and Jordan, expressed their indignation.

Both have enough problems without this additional burden.

Gaza was occupied by Egypt for 19 years before being seized by Israel in the 1967 six -day war.

He is still considered occupied by Israel under international law, which is contesting Israel. He said that the occupation ended in 2005, when it unilaterally dismantled Jewish colonies and released its soldiers.

About three-quarters of the UN members recognize Gaza as part of a sovereign state of Palestine, although the United States does not do it.

Cut from the outside world by fences and an Israeli sea blockade, he never felt like a truly independent place.

Nothing and no one enters or outside the permission of Israel, and an international airport – opened in a large part of brass band in 1998 – was destroyed by Israel in 2001 during the second Palestinian uprising.

Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade in Gaza, citing security reasons, after Hamas won the Palestinian elections in 2006 and ejected its rivals from the territory after intense fights the following year.

Long before the last war, the Palestinians had come to consider Gaza as an open prison.

It goes without saying that the United States has no legal pretension in the territory and that it is not at all clear how Trump intends to impose American domination.

As with its optimistic statements on American control of Greenland or the Panama Canal, it is not yet clear if Trump really means or if the comments represent an open and bizarre negotiation position before a set of deadly negotiations on the future of Gaza.

Various plans were discussed for the post-war governance of Gaza.

In December, the two main Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, agreed to form a joint committee to supervise its administration – an agreement which has so far came to nothing.

At other times, discussions focused on creating an international peacekeeping force, perhaps made up of troops from Arab countries.

Last month, Reuters reported that the water, the United States and Israel had discussed the formation of a temporary administration in Gaza to a reformed Palestinian authority (PA), which already has control in certain parts of the West Bank, was ready to take over.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already publicly insisted that the AP will have no role in the management of post-war Gaza.

In a limited sense, American boots are already on the ground. An American security company has employed a hundred former US special forces for humans a vital check -up south of Gaza City and to detect the vehicles of the Palestinians who return to the north for arms.

Egyptian security personnel were also seen at the same control point.

It could be the first provisional signs of an extended international presence-and perhaps led by the United States in Gaza.

But it is not an American takeover, which would require large -scale military intervention in the Middle East – the kind of thing that Trump has long told the voters that he wanted to avoid.

Negotiations on phase two of the two-week ceasefire between Israel and Hamas have barely started, but it is difficult to see how Trump’s bomb remarks will help them advance.

If Hamas believes that the final product of all this process is a depopulated Gaza – without only Hamas, but of all the Palestinians – this can conclude that there is nothing to say and to keep the remaining hostages that he took on October 7, 2023.

Netanyahu’s criticisms accused him of looking for apologies to explode negotiations and resume war. They are required to conclude that with these comments, Trump is an arranged accomplice.

On the other hand, the donors of the Israeli Prime Minister expressed their satisfaction with the American takeover plan, potentially reducing the risk of resignation from the cabinet and that the immediate political future of Netanyahu seems more assured .

In this sense, Trump gave Netanyahu a powerful incitement to maintain the ceasefire.

When asked if he had agreed that the United States should recognize Israeli sovereignty on the occupied West Bank, Trump said that he had not yet taken a stand but that he would have an announcement to make in four weeks.

This remark caused an alarm among the Palestinians, for whom such an announcement would inevitably be considered as another nail in the coffin for a two -state solution.

Recognizing the legitimacy of the colonies of Israel in the West Bank would be an extremely consecutive decision. Most of the rest of the world consider them illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.

During the previous rounds of peace talks, the negotiators recognized that Israel could maintain blocks of settlement heads within the framework of a final agreement, probably in exchange for small pieces of Israeli territory.

In 2020, Trump negotiated the Abraham agreements, which obtained the historical normalization of relations between Israel and two Arab nations, the United Arab Emirates (Water) and Bahrain.

The United Arab Emirates have signed this agreement on the understanding that Israel would not annoy the parties of the West Bank – an understanding that could now be in danger.