President Donald Trump was being briefed Wednesday on ideas for a post-war Gaza by his son-in-law and former Middle East envoy, Jared Kushner, and Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, according to reports.
Kushner and Blair met with the president to discuss what to do with the devastated enclave, which is currently facing a famine after three years of war started by the October 7, 2023 terror attacks by Hamas, Axios reported.
Trump, Blair and Kushner were discussing all aspects of the Gaza issue, including escalating food aid deliveries, the hostage crisis, post-war plans and more, White House officials told Reuters.
Trump has previously suggested an American takeover of the strip using U.S. troops as a way to bring an end to the war and satisfy Israeli demands that neither Hamas nor the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority have any say in Gaza governance.
Trump in February also posted an AI-generated video depicting a post-war Gaza as a lavish tourist destination.
During a February press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said Palestinians could be relocated to one large or multiple smaller sites that would be constructed and funded by “neighboring countries of great wealth” and located in “other countries of interest with humanitarian hearts.”
“It’s been very unlucky,” he continued. “It’s been an unlucky place for a long time. Being in its presence just has not been good, and it should not go through a process of rebuilding and occupation by the same people that have really stood there and fought for it and lived there and died there and lived a miserable existence there.”
Pressed on what authority would permit the United States to take over Gaza — which is considered occupied territory under international law — Trump replied that he saw the United States taking “a long-term ownership position” that would bring “great stability to the Middle East” region. He also said the US could send troops to Gaza to accomplish this.
“Everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs with something that will be magnificent — in a really magnificent area,” he said.
The comments drew widespread criticism around the world, with Saudi Arabia saying it “unequivocally rejected” the forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, and Hamas branding the idea “ridiculous and absurd”.
Trump later appeared to back down from his plan to take over Gaza, but on Tuesday his roving special envoy, Steve Witkoff, told Fox News that the administration was formulating a “very comprehensive plan” on “the next day” in Gaza.
“Many people are going to see how robust it is and how well meaning it is and it reflects President Trump’s humanitarian motives here,” he said.
Axios has also reported Witkoff as having met with Blair last month when Netanyahu visited with Trump at the White House.
The former Labour prime minister later met with Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas to discuss what he’d talked about with Witkoff, while Kushner separately briefed Netanyahu.
Critics of Netanyahu accuse him of prolonging the war for political reasons. Netanyahu blames Hamas, which still holds around 20 living hostages, and says criticism of Israel’s wartime conduct is only making the militant group more intransigent.
Trump says he wants the war to end and the hostages to come home. But Witkoff walked away from ceasefire talks last month, blaming Hamas, and the president has exerted no public pressure on Israel to change course since it ended a ceasefire in March that he helped broker.
Meanwhile, a United Nations official told the Associated Press Wednesday that if Israel’s military goes ahead with a planned offensive in Gaza City, then “all hope is gone that we’re ever going to see the end to this.”
But Israel says the evacuation of Gaza’s most populated city is “inevitable,” adding to international alarm for hundreds of thousands of people there as famine — documented and declared — threatens to spread after 22 months of war.
“You’ve got a population that’s living in abject fear, in abject cruelty, abject humiliation, that has no control whatsoever over their day-to-day, their minute-to minute lives,” said Sam Rose, the acting director of Gaza operations for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. “Just think for a minute about what that means for any human being, but what it means for parents, what it means for children who’ve grown up knowing nothing but this.”
— with Associated Press
