Month: February 2025

President Donald Trump expanded on his statement last week about “owning” the Gaza Strip, sharing in an interview with Fox News host Brett Baier that Palestinians would have ‘no right to return’ to their homes in Gaza.

Trump did not provide details about how a purchase of Gaza would occur, or how he planned to move two million people; instead insisting that Palestinians will find new homes in Egypt and Jordan. Trump said in the interview: “We’ll build beautiful communities for the 1.9 million people. We’ll build beautiful communities, safe communities; could be five, six, could be two but we’ll build safe communities a little bit away from where they are, where all of this danger is. In the meantime, I would own this. Think of it as a real estate development for the future.”

The President said that the Palestinians would have no right to return because “they’re going to have much better housing. I’m talking about building a permanent place for them because if they have to return now, it will be years before you could ever — it’s not habitable.”  Trump added that “It will be years before it could happen. I’m talking about starting to build and I think I could make a deal with Jordan. I think I can make a deal with Egypt. You know, we give them billions and billions of dollars a year.”

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, two countries that signed the Abraham Accords with Israel normalizing ties during Trump’s first administration, have joined Saudi Arabia in pushing back against the removal of Palestinians from Gaza. They also blasted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for supporting Trump’s idea for Gaza, after Netanyahu suggested that Saudi Arabia could be a home for a new Palestinian state.

Editorial credit: Chip Somodevilla / Shutterstock.com

A Hamas spokesperson said on Monday that it would delay the next planned round of hostage releases until further notice because of what it called ‘violations by Israel’ of the cease-fire agreement. Israel and Hamas are in the midst of a six-week ceasefire, during which Hamas has committed to releasing 33 hostages captured in its Oct. 7, 2023 attack in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

Abu Obeida, the spokesperson for Hamas’ military wing, said in a statement: “Over the past three weeks, the resistance leadership has monitored the enemy’s violations and failure to fulfill its obligations under the agreement; including the delay in allowing the return of the displaced to the northern Gaza Strip, targeting them with direct shelling and gunfire in various areas across Gaza, and denying relief supplies of all kinds to enter as agreed. Meanwhile, the resistance has fully honored its commitments … Therefore, the release of the Zionist prisoners next Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, will be postponed until further notice, and until the occupation commits to and provides compensation for the entitlements of the past weeks retroactively. We reaffirm our commitment to the terms of the agreement, as long as the occupation remains committed to them” (per BBC News).

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Monday: “Hamas’ announcement to stop the release of Israeli hostages is a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement and the hostage release deal. I have instructed the [Israeli Defense Forces] IDF to maintain the highest level of readiness for any possible scenario in Gaza and to fortify the defense of Israeli communities. We will not allow a return to the reality of Oct. 7.”

To date, 16 of the 33 hostages set to be released in the first 42 days of the deal have been sent home with Israel releasing hundreds of prisoners and detainees in return.

Editorial credit: BERK CAN / Shutterstock.com