US officials now say Trump only wants to displace Palestinians from Gaza temporarily

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — President Donald Trump’s top diplomat and his main spokesperson on Wednesday walked back the idea that he wants the permanent relocation of Palestinians from Gaza, after American allies and even Republican lawmakers rebuffed his suggestion that the U.S. take “ownership” of the territory.

Trump on Tuesday had called for “permanently” resettling Palestinians from war-torn Gaza and left open the door to deploying American troops there as part of a massive rebuilding operation. But Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said he only sought to move the roughly 1.8 million Gazans temporarily to allow for reconstruction.

Even that proposal has drawn criticism from Palestinians, who are worried they may never be allowed back in if they flee, and from the Arab nations that Trump has called on to take them in.

Rubio, on his first foreign trip as secretary of state, described Trump’s proposal as a “very generous” offer to help with debris removal and reconstruction of the enclave following 15 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas.

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“In the interim, obviously people are going to have to live somewhere while you’re rebuilding it,” Rubio said in a news conference in Guatemala City.

Leavitt said in a briefing with reporters in Washington that Gaza is “a demolition site” and referenced footage of the devastation.

“The president has made it clear that they need to be temporarily relocated out of Gaza,” she said, calling it currently “an uninhabitable place for human beings” and saying it would be “evil to suggest that people should live in such dire conditions.”

Their comments contradicted Trump, who said Tuesday night, “If we can get a beautiful area to resettle people, permanently, in nice homes where they can be happy and not be shot and not be killed and not be knifed to death like what’s happening in Gaza.” He added that he envisioned “long-term” U.S. ownership of a redevelopment of the territory, which sits along the Mediterranean Sea.

Egypt, Jordan and other U.S. allies in the Mideast have cautioned Trump that relocating Palestinians from Gaza would threaten Mideast stability, risk expanding the conflict and undermine a decades-long push by the U.S. and its allies for a two-state solution.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry issued a sharply worded reaction to Trump, noting its long call for an independent Palestinian state was a “firm, steadfast and unwavering position.” Saudi Arabia has been in negotiations with the U.S. over a deal to diplomatically recognize Israel in exchange for a security pact and other terms.

“The duty of the international community today is to work to alleviate the severe human suffering endured by the Palestinian people, who will remain committed to their land and will not budge from it,” the Saudi statement said.

Even Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican and a Trump ally, called it “problematic.”

“The idea of Americans going in on the ground in Gaza is a non starter for every senator,” the South Carolina lawmaker told reporters Wednesday. “So I would suggest we go back to what we’ve been trying to do which is destroy Hamas and find a way for the Arab world to take over Gaza and the West Bank, in a fashion that would lead to a Palestinian state that Israel can live with.”

Rubio insisted that Trump’s position “was not meant as a hostile move.”

“What he’s very generously has offered is the ability of the United States to go in and help with debris removal, help with munitions removal, help with reconstruction, the rebuilding homes and businesses and things of this nature so that then people can move back in,” Rubio said.

Still, the White House said Trump was ruling out sending U.S. dollars to aid in the reconstruction of Gaza.

But Leavitt, like Trump, refused to rule out sending American troops into Gaza, saying of Trump, “he wants to preserve that leverage in negotiations.”

The Palestinians, Arab nations and others have rejected even a temporary relocation from Gaza, which would run counter to decades of U.S. policy calling for the creation of a Palestinian state with no further displacement of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank.

The proposals also appear to trash months of negotiations by the Biden administration to draft a “day after” plan for the reconstruction and governance of Gaza. President Joe Biden had tried to lock in that plan — which calls for joint governance of the territory by the Palestinian Authority under U.N. stewardship and a multi-national peacekeeping force — before leaving office by inviting Trump’s main Mideast envoy into final talks over a Gaza ceasefire.

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Miller reported from Washington. AP writer Farnoush Amiri contributed from Washington.