While Benjamin Netanyahu was visiting Washington, President Donald Trump said he wants the United States to take ownership of the Gaza Strip, displacing all of the Palestinians in the region.
“The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of the fighting,” said Trump in a press conference with Netanyahu.
“I don’t think people should be going back to Gaza … the only reason they want to go back and I believe this strongly, is because they have no alternative.”
Shaun Narine, the chair of St. Thomas University’s political science department, said that he’s worried about the claims Trump made.
“Everything Trump is saying is ridiculous and a horrific violation of international law,” said Narine.
Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, became the first foreign head of state to visit Trump during his second term in office on Feb 4.
Despite Trump’s officials attempting to dial back the severity of the comments he made, the U.S. president has doubled down on his claims.
“It does worry me that he keeps doubling down on [his comments]. His own people didn’t know they were coming,” said Narine.
All of these claims come in the middle of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas which came into effect on Jan. 19 and is still holding for now.
There have been six exchanges of hostages between Israel and Hamas as a part of phase one of the ceasefire agreement, which has seen 19 Israelis and over 1100 Palestinians released.
Narine, who was doubtful that all of the commitments of the ceasefire would be upheld, said that the future of the agreement may be in jeopardy.
“Both sides have accused each other of violating the ceasefire at this point,” said Narine.
President Trump’s comments were referred to as “irresponsible” by senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri. Netanyahu even suggested that Palestinians would be able to return to Gaza, something Trump adamantly turned away.
“He clearly just doesn’t think things through,” said Narine. “I don’t think he has any real knowledge of anything or any real sense of how to go about doing it.”
Trump followed his initial comments by saying that Hamas should release all of the hostages being held in Gaza on Feb. 15 or he would “cancel” the ceasefire and “let hell break out.”
According to Narine, this is exactly what Netanyahu and other Israeli officials want to happen.
“This is an Israeli plan that Trump is taking credit for because the Israelis have wanted all the Palestinians gone for decades and now this is their great opportunity.”
For Trump’s claims to come true, Narine believes it would take nothing “short of murdering every single Palestinian.”
“I don’t have any illusions at all about what the Israelis are capable of doing and they would murder every Palestinian in Gaza if that was the only option left to them.”
On Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas led attacks on communities in Israel which resulted in the deaths of around 1,200 Israelis.
This was followed up by a 15-month long conflict, where Israeli forces killed over 61,000 Palestinians according to the Gaza Health Ministry’s official death count, with many more being displaced in the process.
Due to some of Trump’s comments, Narine believes that the number of Palestinian deaths could be much higher than many originally thought. Trump suggested that “1.7 or 1.8 million” Palestinians could be relocated by the U.S. in their takeover of the Gaza Strip.
“Back when this war started we always talked about Gaza having a population of 2.3 million people … I’m thinking to myself, where did that half million people go?”
In terms of the potential conclusion to this longstanding conflict, Narine said it is hard to see any form of a peaceful ending.
“Given who we’re dealing with, Netanyahu on one side and Trump on the other, I’m not sure either of them have anything like an off switch.”
