World Leaders React to Trump Proposing U.S. Take Over Gaza, Level It and Build Resorts

TIME

World leaders react to Trump proposing that the U.S. should “own” the Gaza Strip, “level the site” and develop it, explicitly calling for displacing 2 million Palestinians from their homeland as the region’s leaders struggle to maintain a fragile ceasefire.

Transcript

00:00The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too.

00:05We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and

00:10other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level

00:17it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and

00:22housing for the people of the area, do a real job, do something different.

00:29You just can't go back.

00:30If you go back, it's going to end up the same way it has for 100 years.

00:33Last night, many of us were alarmed to hear President Trump speak about forcibly displacing

00:381.8 million people from Gaza.

00:43The Prime Minister has spoken to the President on several occasions now.

00:46Does he personally believe that Trump recognizes the dangers of statements like this to the

00:52fragile ceasefire in Gaza and, indeed, the security of both Palestinians and Israelis?

00:59I'm glad that the Foreign Secretary has confirmed that the government's position is still a

01:04two-state solution.

01:05I think that has support on all sides of the House.

01:08But will he reassure the House that this position and our concerns on these dangerous statements

01:14from the President will be communicated to the White House directly and firmly?

01:18Well, Mr Speaker, you raise a very important issue.

01:22The most important issue on the ceasefire is obviously sustained.

01:25We see it through the phases, and that means that the remaining hostages come out and the

01:30aid that's desperately needed gets into Gaza at speed and at the volumes that are needed.

01:36The image of thousands of Palestinians walking, literally walking through the rubble, to try

01:42to find their homes and their communities in Gaza.

01:46They must be allowed home, they must be allowed to rebuild, and we should be with them in

01:52that rebuild on the way to a two-state solution.

01:56I always adopt the approach when it comes to the US administration of judge them based

02:01on what they do and not what they say.

02:03I think it would be important that the United States would clarify the comments of the President

02:08overnight because the international community has put a huge effort now into bringing about

02:14a ceasefire.

02:15It's been the long-held view of the international community that a two-state solution must be

02:19the landing zone here, and the comments last night were of course very concerning, but

02:25the focus has to be on keeping the ceasefire in place, a fragile ceasefire that has seen

02:30aid finally flowing to the people of Gaza, bombing stopping and hostages released.

02:34I'm not going to, as Australia's Prime Minister, give a daily commentary on statements by the

02:41US President.

02:42My job is to support Australia's position.

02:45Australia's position is the same as it was this morning, as it was last year, and it

02:50was ten years ago, and it was under the Howard government.

02:56The Australian government support, on a bipartisan basis, a two-state solution.

03:02In two days, in a span of few hours, 400,000 Palestinians walking returned to the northern

03:09part of the Gaza Strip.

03:11I think that we should be respecting the selections and the wishes of the Palestinian

03:17people, and the Palestinian people, at the end, will make the determination.

03:23Their determination, they want to clean the destruction in Gaza.

03:27They want to rebuild Gaza.

03:29They want to rebuild the schools, the hospitals, the roads, the infrastructures, and the buildings

03:37and the homes, because this is where they belong and they love to live there.

03:42And I think that, you know, leaders and people should respect the wishes of the Palestinian

03:48people.

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