US President Donald Trump has proposed US control of the Gaza Strip, after he had previously suggested permanently displacing Palestinians in the territory. Palestinian and Arab leaders have publicly rejected Trump’s previous comments that Palestinians should be moved to Egypt and Jordan, while human rights advocates have denounced them as a proposal for ethnic cleansing. Trump has offered few details about his proposal, but he has outlined the basics of a plan that has drawn, and is expected to draw, further negative reactions. Here are some of Trump’s statements and questions he answered during a press conference early Wednesday at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: 1/ What did Trump say? “The United States will take control of the Gaza Strip, and we will do our job there as well,” Trump said at the start of the press conference. “The United States will take charge of dismantling all dangerous unexploded ordnance and other weapons on site, leveling the site, disposing of destroyed buildings and leveling them, and creating economic development that will provide unlimited jobs and housing for the people of the area.”

2/ Who will receive the Gazans?

Trump said Washington would ask other neighboring countries to take in Palestinians displaced from Gaza, though he did not say whether the Palestinians would be willing to accept such a plan.

Although Trump has repeatedly asked Egypt and Jordan to do so since January 25, those countries and other Arab states have rejected his proposal.

“Instead, we should go to other countries that are interested, and there are many that want to do this, and build different areas that will eventually house the 1.8 million Palestinians who live in Gaza, and end the death and destruction there, and the neighboring countries with great wealth can pay for this,” Trump added.

The population of Gaza before the aggression was 2.3 million people.

3/ Will America send forces to implement Trump's plan?

"We'll do what's necessary. If it's necessary, we'll do it. We'll take that piece of land. We'll develop it, we'll create thousands and thousands of jobs, and it'll be something the entire Middle East can be proud of," Trump said when asked if Washington would send U.S. troops to Gaza under his proposal.

4/ Does Trump support the two-state solution?

For decades, the United States has supported a two-state solution between Palestinians and Israelis that would create a state for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza alongside Israel.

Asked if Washington under his watch no longer supported that, Trump said, without directly answering the question, “It doesn’t mean anything about two states or one state or any other state. It means we want to give people a chance to live… because Gaza was a hell hole for the people who lived there.”

5/ Who will live in Gaza under Trump's plan?

"I envision people of the world living there, people of the world," Trump said when asked who he envisioned living in Gaza.

"The Palestinians too, the Palestinians will live there, a lot of people will live there," he added, without going into details.

On January 19, the ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement between Hamas and Israel entered into force in its first phase, which lasts for 6 weeks.

The agreement, which was reached through Qatari, Egyptian and American mediation, stipulates the start of indirect negotiations regarding the second phase no later than the 16th day, with the agreement to be completed before the end of the fifth week of the first phase.

Source: Al Jazeera + Reuters