By David French
MIAMI (Reuters) -The United States’ envoy to the Middle East said on Thursday that President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza was not about evicting Palestinians, and the conversation about Gaza’s future was being shifted towards how to create a better future for Palestinians.
Trump proposed on February 4 the U.S. should take over Gaza, with Palestinians resettled in other places including Egypt and Jordan, a suggestion which caused an international outcry.
However, speaking at a Miami conference hosted by a non-profit linked to the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund, U.S. envoy Steven Witkoff said that Trump’s comments on Gaza were more about trying different solutions to those proposed over the previous 50 years.
He said that the war between Israel and Hamas has left much of Gaza destroyed and littered with unexploded ordnance, and it was impossible to see how people could return.
“It’s going to take a lot of clean-up and imagination, and a great master plan, and that doesn’t mean we’re on an eviction plan, when the President talks about this,” Steven Witkoff told the FII Institute event.
“It means he wants to shake up everyone’s thinking, and think about what is compelling and what is the best solution for the Palestinian people.
“For instance, do they want to live in a home there, or would they rather have an opportunity to resettle in some sort of better place, to have jobs, upside and financial prospects,” he added.
(Reporting by David French in Miami; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)
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