Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has expressed full support for U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial plan to relocate Palestinians from Gaza, affirming that Israel is prepared to implement it.
In an interview with Fox News on Saturday, during his visit to Washington, Netanyahu defended Trump’s proposal, which has been met with widespread criticism across the Middle East and beyond.
I think that President Trump’s proposal is the first fresh idea in years, and it has the potential to change everything in Gaza,” Netanyahu stated, describing it as a “correct approach” to the territory’s future.
According to Netanyahu, Trump’s plan does not involve American military intervention but instead offers Palestinians the opportunity to temporarily relocate while Gaza undergoes reconstruction.
“All Trump is saying, ‘I want to open the gate and give them an option to relocate temporarily while we rebuild the place physically’,” Netanyahu explained.
“Trump never said he wants American troops to do the job. Guess what? We’ll do the job,” he declared.
Netanyahu argued that Trump’s approach marks a departure from previous failed strategies.
“The same old, same old, same old — we leave, Gaza becomes again occupied by these terrorists who use it as a base to attack Israel… It doesn’t go anywhere,” he said. “I think we should pursue it.”
However, he acknowledged a key challenge: securing a host country willing to accept displaced Palestinians. He also stated that any Palestinians wishing to return to Gaza must “disavow terrorism.”
For Palestinians, the idea of being forced out of Gaza raises painful historical memories of the 1948 Nakba, the mass displacement that occurred during the creation of Israel.
Netanyahu pushed back against concerns, arguing that allowing Gazans to leave is a humanitarian act.
“Everybody describes Gaza as the biggest open-air prison in the world,” he said. “Get the population out, allow them to leave. Not forcible eviction, not ethnic cleansing—getting people out of what all these countries and all these do-gooders say is an open-air prison. Why are you keeping them in prison?”
