Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu poses with President Donald Trump at the White House, Feb. 4, 2025. (Getty Images)

(JTA) — President Donald Trump said Friday he would “recommend” — but was “not forcing” — his plan to depopulate the Gaza Strip and have the United States take it over, as Arab states have roundly rejected the idea and tensions mount over the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage release deal.

Speaking to Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade, Trump also repeated his comparison of  recently returned Israeli hostages to Holocaust survivors, and ridiculed former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s 2005 unilateral withdrawal from Gaza.

“I’ll tell you the way to do it is my plan. I think that’s the plan that really works,” Trump said. “But I’m not forcing it. I’m just going to sit back and recommend it. And then the U.S. would own the site, there’d be no Hamas. And they’d be developed and you’d start all over again with a clean slate.”

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The notion that Trump’s proposal to relocate Gaza’s entire population is merely a recommendation marks a shift for him. He has repeatedly pressed Jordan and Egypt, neighboring states that have peace deals with Israel, to accept Palestinians from Gaza, citing the amount of aid the United States provides them. And he has likewise repeated his proposal for the United States to take control of the territory, a plan Israel’s government has endorsed.

Trump has predicted that Arab states would come around to the idea of depopulating Gaza, but they have not, aside from Jordan agreeing to take in 2,000 sick children. On Friday, a group of them met to compose an alternative plan that would leave Gaza’s population of approximately 2 million in place.

But even as he signaled in the interview that he would not insist on his plan, Trump touted it.

“It’s really essentially leveled now, you don’t have too much to do other than remove debris,” he said about the Gaza Strip. “That place is not livable. And if you gave people the choice between that and living in a nice community, I think I know where they’d go. But we’ll see what happens.”

Then the president briefly mused about Israel’s decision, in 2005, to unilaterally evacuate its settlements and soldiers from Gaza and hand the territory over to the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.

“It’s a great location. I don’t know why Israel ever gave that up. Why’d they give it up?” Trump said. Without naming Sharon directly (though Kilmeade did) Trump went on, “Somebody from Israel, I can’t tell you who, but was well known, decided to give it up. It’s one of the bad real estate deals.”

Describing Hamas’ return of the bodies of Ariel and Kfir Bibas, whose coffins they paraded on a stage as part of a gruesome ceremony, as “barbaric,” Trump said he understood why current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be “angry.”

When asked whether he would prefer Netanyahu prioritizing rescuing the remaining Hostages or trying to finish off Hamas, the president said he would accept either.

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