Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supported President Donald Trump on Monday to move the Palestinians from Gaza and transform the coastal enclave ravaged by the war into luxury development by the water – a plan that has led to an international conviction and could still complicate the fragile talks of the judgment between Israel and Hamas.
“This is called free choice,” Netanyahu told journalists before a private dinner with the president at the White House. “If people want to stay, they can stay. But if they want to leave, they should be able to leave. ”
Netanyahu added that Israel worked “very closely” with the United States very closely to identify the countries which would be willing to accept the displaced Palestinians of Gaza, and suggested that discussions with several nations were already “near” the fruit.
Trump, seated in front of the Israeli chief, said that “we had great cooperation” from the countries surrounding Israel and added that “something good will happen”.
Netanyahu’s comments have marked the most explicit approval to date with a controversial idea, Trump has floated for the first time earlier this year: that Gaza could be emptied of its Palestinian population and refurbished in what it called once the “Middle East Riviera”. The proposal was encountered by rapid reactions from the American allies, Arab leaders and human rights organizations, who said that this was equivalent to ethnic cleaning under the guise of economic development. The White House then tried to resume the elements of Trump’s language.
But Netanyahu’s renewed support for vision – has been registered with its insistence to reject the creation of a Palestinian state – gives a striking overview of the type of “peace” that he and Trump can finally seek: one in which the Palestinian population is moved or resettled abroad.
It also represents a clear break in decades of American policy, which has long considered that the path to peace in the Middle East must include a solution to two states – an independent Palestinian state existing alongside Israel. Netanyahu clearly indicated that any peace agreement to end the war with Hamas should not include the recognition of a Palestinian state.
“I think the Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves, but none of the powers to threaten us,” said Netanyahu. “And that means that certain powers and overall security will always remain in our hands.”
“We are going to find a peace with our Palestinian neighbors, those who do not want to destroy us,” he added, “and we will develop a peace in which our security, the sovereign power of security, always remains in our hands. Now, people will say:” It is not a complete state, it is not a state. That’s not that – we don’t like it. “”
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Negotiators will meet in Doha later this week for the ceasefire and the host-time talks. Although Trump said he thought that an agreement could be concluded “during the coming week”, Netanyahu’s approval in mass relocation could deepen the distrust of Palestinian negotiators and potentially derail progress.
“It should not be a prison,” said Netanyahu about Gaza, which had 2 million pre-war inhabitants. “It should be an open place.”
The war in Gaza, now in its 21st month, started after Hamas launched a terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. Since then, the military campaign of Israel has killed more than 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, and moved more than 80% of the population. United Nations agencies warn that half a million people are faced with imminent famine.
The Prime Minister’s remarks have echoed an increasing feeling in its far -right coalition, where the calls to permanently withdraw the Gaza Palestinians have become more open in recent months.
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The private dinner crowned a day of closed diplomacy for Netanyahu, who also met the Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s foreign envoy earlier, Steve Witkoff. Netanyahu is expected to meet on Tuesday the president of the room Mike Johnson. The two leaders seemed to use dinner to take a victory tour after the United States and Israel made coordinated air strikes on Iranian nuclear installations last month. Before responding to journalists, Netanyahu said he had appointed Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize.
