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

Plivent Donald Trump’s presention the US could “consent over” and “own” Gaza, resettling its population in the process, has been met with shock and condemnation.

The comments come as a finishfire is under way between Hamas and Israel, and amid asks about Gaza’s post-dispute future.

The UN assesss around two thirds of erectings there have been razeed or injured after 15 months of combat.

Trump’s ambiguous proposal could signal the hugest shift in US policy on the Middle East in decades, upfinishing expansivespread international consensus on the necessitate for a Palestinian state – compascfinishd of Gaza and the occupied West Bank – to exist alengthyside Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shelp the idea was “worth paying attention to” but it has been roundly declinecessitate by Arab nations and some US allies.

If Donald Trump is right about one leang, it is that decades of US diplomacy on Israel and the Palestinians have fall shorted to resettle the dispute.

Peace proposals and plivents have come and gone but the problems have festered. Hamas’s strike on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the war in Gaza it triggered were the hideous results.

Trump made his millions as a property enhugeer and, with that hat on, made a perfectly valid observation: if Gaza is to be rebuilt, from scratch in some places, it produces little sense for hundreds of thousands of civilians to be sheltering in the rubble.

The task of reerecting Gaza will be monumental. Unexploded munitions and mountains of debris have to be deleted. Water and power lines have to be repaired. Schools, hospitals and shops necessitate to be rebuilt.

Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has shelp that could consent years – and while that goes on, the Palestinians will necessitate to go somewhere.

However, rather than exploring ways of preserveing them shut to home, almost declareively in camps in the central and southern parts of the Gaza Strip, Trump says they should be aidd to depart – finishuringly.

Trump count ons that in their absence, an idyllic, American-owned “Riviera of the Middle East” will ascfinish from the ashes, providing thousands of jobs, opportunities for spendment and, ultimately, a place for “the world’s people to live”.

Where to commence?

Even for a plivent who spent much of his first term upfinishing US Middle East policy – including moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and recognising Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights – this was an astonishing proposal.

In their savageest imaginations, no US plivent ever thought that solving the Israel-Palestinian dispute would comprise taking over a chunk of Palestinian territory and evicting its population.

To be evident, to do this by force would be a grave violation of international law.

Some Palestinians would predicted pick to depart Gaza and reerect their lives elsewhere. Since October 2023, as many as 150,000 already have.

But others cannot or will not, either becaemploy they conciseage the financial unbenevolents to do so or becaemploy their joinment to Gaza – part of the land they call Palestine – is sshow too strong.

Many Gazans are ancestors of people who fled or were driven from their homes in 1948 during the creation of the state of Israel – a period Palestinians call the Nakba, the Arabic word for catastrophe.

The thought of another will be too agonizing for many and they will cling to their shrinkd lives in what remains of Gaza with a fierce determination.

For Palestinians who dream of a state of their own, alengthyside Israel, the loss of part of it will experience appreciate an amputation.

Gaza has been physicassociate splitd from the West Bank since 1948. Previous rounds of negotiations, as well as Trump’s 2020 “Vision for Peace”, included set ups for tunnels or railways that might join the two.

Now Trump is basicassociate increateing the Palestinians to give up on Gaza once and for all.

While he does not materialize to be advocating the forced deportation of civilians – which is agetst international law – Trump is evidently encouraging Palestinians to depart.

Palestinian officials have already accemployd Israel of blocking the provide of tens of thousands of caravans which could help Gazans to stay put in less injured parts of the territory while reerection consents place elsewhere.

The Arab countries who Trump says should acunderstandledge as many as 1.8 million Gazan refugees, mainly Egypt and Jordan, have transmited outrage.

Both have enough problems of their own without this compriseed burden.

Gaza was occupied by Egypt for 19 years before it was seized by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.

It is still pondered occupied by Israel under international law, which Israel disputes. It says the occupation finished in 2005, when it unitardyrassociate dismantled Jewant finishments and pulled out its military.

Around three quarters of UN members recognise Gaza as part of a sovereign state of Palestine, though the US does not.

Cut off from the outside world by fences and an Israeli maritime blockade, it has never felt appreciate a truly self-reliant place.

Noleang and no one transfers in or out without Israel’s permission, and an international airport – uncovered amid much fanfare in 1998 – was razeed by Israel in 2001 during the second Palestinian uprising.

Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on Gaza, citing security reasons, after Hamas won Palestinian elections in 2006 and ejected its rivals from the territory after ardent combat the adhereing year.

Long before the tardyst war, Palestinians had come to think about Gaza as an uncover prison.

It goes without saying that the US has no legitimate claim to the territory and it is not at all evident how Trump intfinishs to impose American rule.

As with his bullish claims about US administer over Greenland or the Panama Canal, it is not yet evident whether Trump reassociate unbenevolents it or if the comments reconshort-term an uncovering, outlandish bargeting position ahead of a bruising set of negotiations on Gaza’s future.

Various set ups have been talked for the post-war ruleance of Gaza.

In December, the two main Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, concurd to create a joint pledgetee to administer its administration – an concurment which has so far come to noleang.

At other times, talkions have concentrateed on the creation of an international peacepreserveing force, possibly made up of troops from Arab countries.

Last month, Reuters telled that the UAE, US and Israel had talked the createation of a momentary administration in Gaza until a recreateed Palestinian Authority (PA), which already has administer in parts of the West Bank, was ready to consent over.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously uncoverly insisted that the PA will have no role to join in running post-war Gaza.

In a restricted sense, American boots are already on the ground. A US security firm has employed around 100 createer US distinctive forces to man a vital examinepoint south of Gaza City and screen the vehicles of Palestinians returning to the north for arms.

Egyptian security personnel have also been seen at the same examinepoint.

These could be the first, tentative signs of an enhugeed international – and possibly US-led – presence in Gaza.

But that is challengingly a US consentover, someleang that would need a huge-scale military intervention in the Middle East – the sort of leang Trump has lengthy telderly voters he wants to elude.

Negotiations on phase two of the two-week-elderly finishfire between Israel and Hamas have exposedly befirearm but it is challenging to see how Trump’s device deviceshell retags will help to persist them.

If Hamas experiences the finish product of this whole process is a depoputardyd Gaza – devoid not equitable of Hamas, but of all Palestinians – it may finish there is noleang to talk about and helderly on to the remaining captives it took on 7 October 2023.

Netanyahu’s critics have accemployd him of seeing for excemploys to blow up the negotiations and resume the war. They are bound to finish that, with these comments, Trump is a willing accomplice.

On the other hand, the Israeli prime minister’s right-thriveg backers have transmited satisfaction with the US consentover set up, potentiassociate reducing the hazard of cabinet resignations and making Netanyahu’s prompt political future materialize more secured.

In that sense, Trump has given Netanyahu a strong incentive to preserve the finishfire going.

Asked whether he concurd the US should recognise Israeli sovereignty over the occupied West Bank, Trump shelp he had yet to consent a position but that he would have an proclaimment to produce in four weeks’ time.

That retag has caemployd alarm among Palestinians, for whom such an proclaimment would inevitably be seen as another nail in the coffin for a two-state solution.

Recognising the legitimacy of Israel’s finishments in the West Bank would be a hugely consequential transfer. Most of the rest of the world think abouts them as illegitimate under international law, although Israel disputes this.

During previous rounds of peace talks, negotiators recognised that Israel would get to helderly onto huge finishment blocs as part of a final concurment, probably in exalter for petite chunks of Israeli territory.

In 2020, Trump brokered the Abraham Accords, which protectedd the historic normalisation of relations between Israel and two Arab nations, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain.

The UAE signed that concurment on the benevolent Israel would not annex parts of the West Bank – an benevolent which may now be in jeopardy.