Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed strong support for the U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial plan to relocate Palestinians from the conflict-ravaged Gaza Strip, asserting that Israel is prepared to take action.
Speaking in an interview with the press on Saturday night, as he concluded his trip to Washington, Netanyahu defended the proposal despite widespread criticism. The plan has drawn significant backlash and alarm 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 said, adding that it represents a “correct approach” to the future of the Palestinian territory.
“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 said.
Netanyahu emphasized that Trump never suggested deploying American troops for the task, stating, “We’ll do the job ourselves.”
Israel first took control of Gaza in 1967, maintaining a military presence until 2005 when it withdrew its forces and settlers. Following its exit, Israel imposed a strict blockade on the Hamas-governed enclave, tightening restrictions further after the war erupted in October 2023.
Over the years, Israel and armed groups in Gaza have engaged in multiple conflicts, but the latest war—triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented 2023 assault on Israel—has been the most devastating.
Netanyahu argued that Trump’s proposal represented a shift from past strategies, which, in his view, repeatedly failed. “We leave, and Gaza is once again taken over by terrorists who use it to launch attacks against Israel. That leads nowhere,” he said.
He expressed support for moving forward with the plan but acknowledged a major challenge: securing a country willing to accept displaced Palestinians.
The prime minister also insisted that any Palestinians seeking to return to Gaza in the future must renounce terrorism.
For Palestinians, the prospect of forced displacement brings painful historical parallels to the “Nakba” or “catastrophe” of 1948, when hundreds of thousands were uprooted during Israel’s establishment.
“Everybody describes Gaza as the biggest open-air prison in the world,” Netanyahu 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?”
