U.S. President Donald Trump said that Palestinians who leave the Gaza Strip would not return under his plan to reconstruct the enclave in an interview released on Monday.
Fox News host Bret Baier asked the president if the Palestinians “would have the right to return.”
“No, they wouldn’t,” Trump said. “Because they’re gonna have much better housing.”
“I’m talking about building a permanent place for them because if they have to return now, it will be years before you could ever—it’s not habitable,” Trump added. “It will be years before it could happen.”
Since Trump announced his plan for the United States to “own” the Gaza Strip at a bombshell press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, Trump administration officials have given conflicting answers about whether his idea to relocate the roughly 2 million Palestinians living in Gaza would be a temporary or permanent relocation.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said on Wednesday that the relocation of Gazans would be temporary.
“The president has made it clear that they need to be temporarily relocated out of Gaza for the rebuilding of this effort,” she said during a press conference. “It’s a demolition site right now. It’s not a livable place for any human being.”
Trump said in the interview released on Monday that he believes he could strike a deal with Egypt and Jordan to build housing for Palestinians outside of Gaza.
“We’ll build beautiful communities,” Trump said. “Could be 5, 6—could be 2. But we’ll build safe communities a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is.”
The longtime real estate developer also repeated his idea for the United States to “own” and redevelop Gaza.
“Think of it as a real estate development for the future,” Trump said. “It would be a beautiful piece of land. No big money spent.”