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Israel and US working on Trump's plan to turn Gaza into resort, says Netanyahu
The Guardian
|February 17, 2025
Benjamin Netanyahu said yesterday that his government was working with the US to implement Donald Trump's plan for Gaza, which involves US ownership of the strip, the removal of more than 2 million Palestinians and the redevelopment of the occupied territory as a resort.
The Israeli prime minister spoke after a meeting with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who said Trump's plan was bold and visionary. Rubio and Netanyahu blamed Iran for the violence in the Middle East and said Tehran would be stopped from developing nuclear weapons.
Trump's shock proposal this month for a "riviera of the Middle East" has been condemned around the world as a blueprint for ethnic cleansing, but Rubio and Netanyahu insisted it would proceed.
"We discussed Trump's bold vision for Gaza's future and will work to ensure that vision becomes a reality," Netanyahu told reporters after the meeting in Jerusalem. "We have a common strategy, and we can't always share the details of this strategy with the public".
He did say, however, that it included opening "the gates of hell" on Gaza, a phrase used by Trump, if the hostages held by Hamas and other militant groups were not released.
Rubio said the plan "may have shocked many", but added that "what cannot continue is the same cycle where we repeat over and over again and wind up in the exact same place". Neither Rubio nor Netanyahu answered questions at their press event.
Israel's finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said on Saturday that he hoped the mass transfer of Palestinians from Gaza endorsed by Trump could begin soon. He said he expected they would be forced to leave by a resumption of bombing.
This story is from the February 17, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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