1 of 7 | Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and US President Donald J. Trump talk with reporters in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on Tuesday. President Trump, who is hosting his first in-person meeting with another world leader since returning to the White House, and Prime Minister Netanyahu discussed the Israeli cease-fire with Hamas, Iran's nuclear program and future arms shipments, among other bilateral issues. Photo by Shawn Thew/UPI |
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Feb. 4 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump called for the United States to take control of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his first in-person meeting with another world leader since returning to the White House, as the two leaders negotiated the second phase of a fragile cease-fire pact.
"The United States will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too," Trump told reporters during a joint news conference after they met. "We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site and get rid of the destroyed buildings."
"They are not going to want to go back to Gaza," Trump added, as he called for the resettlement of Palestinians. "Gaza is a hell-hole right now ... I think the potential in Gaza is unbelievable."
"If we can get a beautiful area to resettle people permanently in nice homes and where they can be happy and not be shot, not be killed, not be knifed to death, like what's happening in Gaza," Trump added, as he called on other "rich" nations to pay for a new home for Palestinians.
"And right now you have in Gaza a very dangerous situation in terms of explosives all over the place, in terms of tunnels that nobody knows who's in the tunnel. The whole thing is a mess," Trump said, adding that the United States could "create economic development to supply jobs and housing for the people of the area."
Netanyahu said President Trump "sees a different future for that piece of land that has been the focus of so much terrorism."
"I think it's something that could change history. And it's worthwhile to pursue," Netanyahu added during the news conference, where he called Trump "the greatest friend of Israel."
"I am honored to be the first foreign leader to visit the White House during your second term," Netanyahu said. "You are the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House. And that's why the people of Israel have such enormous respect for you."
"You boldly confronted the scourge of anti-Semitism," Netanyahu added. "And today, you renewed the maximum pressure campaign against Iran. Ladies and gentlemen, imagine this in just two weeks. Imagine what can be accomplished in four years."
Trump has repeatedly vowed to restore his "maximum pressure" on Iran to keep it from possessing a nuclear weapon, while saying he prefers a diplomatic solution.
"That is the same Iran that has tried to kill us both. They tried to kill you, Mr. President, and they tried, through their proxies, to kill me," Netanyahu said.
"Israel has never been stronger and Iran's terror axis has never been weaker. But we have to finish the job," Netanyahu added, as he called for the release of all hostages, the end of Hamas and assurances "that Gaza never poses a threat to Israel again."
"Israel will end the war by winning the war. And by working together we will win the peace."
Earlier Tuesday, the two leaders touched on a number of topics during their hours-long meeting in the Oval Office that included ongoing negotiations for the next step of the critical cease-fire agreement with Hamas and Gaza, diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, Iran's nuclear weapons program and a pending transfer to Israel of more than $8 billion worth of bombs, missiles, artillery and other weaponry amid a Biden-era freeze on weapon transfers, and growing anger over credible accusations of genocide.
"I have no assurances that it'll hold," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office of the cease-fire. "And I've seen people brutalized. I've never, nobody's ever seen anything like it," he added.
The meeting is Trump's first official sit-down with a foreign leader since he returned to the White House on Jan. 20.
"The stakes are really high for the prime minister, to be clear," Thomas R. Nides, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel, told The New York Times before the meeting. "President Trump is holding all the cards and is really clear he wants to see all the hostages come home," Nides said.
Meanwhile, 18 hostages have been freed since the truce on Jan. 19 -- a day before Trump became president for the second time -- in a deal negotiated by both Trump and the Biden administration.
"The discussions on the Middle East with Israel" and various other countries, Trump said over the weekend, "are progressing." He added Netanyahu will be "coming on Tuesday, and I think we have some very big meetings scheduled."
Netanyahu arrived at Blair House late Sunday in Washington, and is expected to stay until the end of the week to meet with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
He said he looked forward to discussing with Trump "victory over Hamas, achieving the release of all our hostages and dealing with the Iranian terror axis in all its components."
The two last met at Trump's Florida estate on July 26, where Netanyahu said he expressed hope at the time for a cease-fire and eventual release of hostages held by Iran's terror syndicate.
Trump, however, suggested more than a week ago that Egypt and Jordan take in Palestinian refugees.
But the two nations have rejected Trump's plan to "clean out" the enclave, which originally housed some 2 million civilians prior to Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack that killed roughly 1,200 Israelis with 251 taken hostage, some of whom were American citizens.
Meanwhile, Jordan's King Abdullah II will meet with Trump at the White House next Tuesday.
Netanyahu's visit arrived one day after Hamas militants freed three hostages, including Israel-American national Keith Siegel and two other hostages in a swap for 187 prisoners.
Negotiations on the second phase of the Gaza cease-fire deal began Monday when Netanyahu met with Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.
"It's holding so far," Witkoff said Monday of the shaky deal. "We're certainly hopeful, and that's the president's direction: Get the hostages out and save lives and come to, hopefully, a peaceful settlement of it all."
In a statement following his meeting with Witkoff, Netanyahu's office said Israel was prepping to send a working delegation to Qatar to review "technical details related to the continued implementation of the agreement."
The Israeli leader will convene a security cabinet once home, according to the statement, "to discuss Israel's overall positions regarding the second stage of the deal, which will guide the continuation of the negotiations."
However, a foreign policy expert says Netanyahu "made this salami deal" in reference to the three-phase Hamas agreement.
"He's always playing for time and kicking the can down the road," Shira Efron, the senior director of policy research at the New York-based research group Israel Policy Forum, told the Times. "Something he is an expert in. Trump wants to cut to the chase and end the war."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump talk with reporters in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on February 4, 2025. Photo by Shawn Thew/UPI |
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