NEW YORK, February 10. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump believes that Palestinians will be reluctant to return to the Gaza Strip after the implementation of his plan to rebuild the enclave because they will have much better housing by then, he told Fox News in an interview.
"We'll build beautiful communities for the 1.9 million people <...> Think of it as a real estate development for the future," the White House host said. When asked if the Palestinians would be free to return to Gaza, Trump said, "No, they wouldn't, because they're going to have much better housing."
The president also voiced confidence that he will manage to reach agreements with Jordan and Egypt to implement his plan because Washington gives them "billions of dollars a year."
Earlier, the White House host stated that the US must "take over" Gaza and ensure that the radical Hamas movement does not return there. Trump compared the enclave to a "demolition site" and suggested that its residents will have nowhere to return. The president advocates for the forced relocation of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza. In his view, Arab countries will accept and accommodate them after negotiations with the US. Trump believes that the Palestinians would leave Gaza if they had a choice.
The US president said on February 4 at a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after talks at the White House that Washington was considering long-term ownership of the Gaza Strip to develop it for the sake of peace in the Middle East. The US leader advocated the transfer of Palestinians from the enclave to other countries in the region, which he said could "pay the price." Trump pointed out that the US is ready to send troops to Gaza if it deems it necessary. Arab countries, Iran and a number of Western states have opposed this. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he did not think the US proposals on Gaza’s future were worth considering.