President Donald Trump, right, suggested U.S. owning Gaza after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz)
While many of Trump’s allies surmised the bold suggestion was a negotiating tactic, Trump reasserted to reporters Sunday night as he was leaving the Super Bowl that he was committed to "buying and owning" Gaza.
"I'm committed to buying and owning Gaza. As far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it. Other people may do it through our auspices. But we're committed to owning it, taking it, and making sure that Hamas doesn't move back," he said.
"There's nothing to move back in to. The place is a demolition site... The remainder will be demolished," he added. "But we'll make it into a very good site for future development by somebody."
The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, agreed to in January and partially brokered by Trump's team, calls for a three- to five-year reconstruction phase, but Trump officials now insist it will take more like 10 to 15 years to rebuild the 139-square-mile territory that has been leveled by Israel’s offensive against Hamas.
Trump insisted Palestinians do not want to go back to Gaza.
"We're going to make sure they live beautifully and in harmony and peace and that they're not murdered," he said. "They don't want to go back to Gaza. They only go back because they have no alternative."
TRUMP REMAINS COMMITTED TO US OWNING GAZA, SAYS MIDDLE EAST STATES COULD HELP REBUILD WAR-TORN AREA
President Donald Trump promised that the U.S. would keep Hamas, pictured above, out of Gaza. (TPS-IL)
However, negotiations for the mid- and long-term future are ongoing. Hamas wants all Israeli troops out of Gaza, while Israel wants Hamas eliminated.
Last week, White House national security adviser Mike Waltz suggested Trump's comments would turn up the heat on the Middle East to find its own solutions.
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"I think it's going to bring the entire region to come with their own solutions," Waltz mused about the comments on CBS on Wednesday.
Waltz went on, adding, "He's not seeing any realistic solutions on how those miles and miles and miles of debris are going to be clear, how those essentially unexploded bombs are going to be removed, how these people are physically going to live there for at least a decade, if not longer, it's going to take to do this."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/egypt-planning-emergency-arab-summit-palestinian-territory-trumps-gaza-plan-us-president-insists