U.S. President Donald Trump said Palestinians would not have the right of return to the Gaza Strip under his proposal to redevelop the enclave, according to excerpts from a Fox News interview.
In a transcript released on Monday, Trump added that he thought he could make a deal with Jordan and Egypt to take the displaced Palestinians, saying the U.S. gives the two countries "billions and billions of dollars a year."
Asked if Palestinians would have the right to return to Gaza, Trump told Fox: "No, they wouldn't because they're going to have much better housing," according an excerpt Fox News broadcast on Monday.
"I'm talking about building a permanent place for them," he said, adding it would take years for Gaza to be habitable again.
In a shock announcement last week, Trump proposed resettling Gaza's 2.2 million Palestinians. His remarks to Fox were the first time he said they would have no right of return.
Residents of Gaza have broadly rejected any suggestion of moving from the strip, as has the Palestinian Authority and the militant group Hamas that administers Gaza.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said Trump's statement that Palestinians would not be able to return to Gaza was "irresponsible."
"We affirm that such plans are capable of igniting the region," he told Reuters on Monday.
When Trump introduced his proposals last week, including one for the U.S. to take over Gaza, he drew rebukes from allies throughout the world. Palestinians and regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia rejected the proposal outright.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who met Trump last week, praised the proposal to resettle Palestinians. He said: "They can leave, they can then come back, they can relocate and come back. But you have to rebuild Gaza."
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who will depart later this week for his first visit to the Middle East in the job, said Palestinians would have to "live somewhere else in the interim" while strip was rebuilt.
Rubio met Egypt's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty in Washington on Monday for talks on regional stability, Egypt's foreign ministry said on X, as Cairo fears Palestinians could be forced across Egypt's border with Gaza.
In portions of the interview broadcast on Sunday, Trump reiterated his plan to buy and own Gaza.
In the latest excerpt released on Monday, Trump said between two and six communities could be built for the Palestinians "a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is."
"I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future. It would be a beautiful piece of land. No big money spent," he told Fox.
