A White House national called Gaza a “demolition page” ahead of President Donald Trump‘s meet with , Israeli , Prime Minister , Benjamin Netanyahu, predicting it will take more than a decade to construct the area.
A senior administration official said on Tuesday day,” I believe the management may be looking to build on the end of the Gaza conflict and ultimately to promote local normalization,” but that’s as far as I can go in terms of how we’re seeing the peace process.
According to the official,” I think President Trump views the Gaza Strip and sees it as a demolition page, sees it as impossible to rebuild it in three to five years, believes it will take at least 10 to 15 years, and thinks it’s cruel to push people to live in an unsuitable plot of land with old artillery and rubble,” he added.
Trump “is also trying to look for solutions to help the people of Gaza have normal lives while the Gaza Strip is ultimately being rebuilt and is trying to look at this in a realistic way,” the official said.
A second administration official added that Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, last week became the first U. S. official in 15 years to travel to Gaza. At the time, Witkoff claimed that the reconstruction of Gaza was” a 10- to 15-year rebuilding plan.”
” You’ll need things like a geotechnical survey”, she said. ” There’s no utility, there’s disease, there’s standing water. You couldn’t get an ambulance there at the time right away if you wanted to. So, it really is quite uninhabitable”.
Additionally, that official emphasized a meeting this week between the United States and its Arab partners, where the United States urged them to” come together for creative solutions to this challenge.”
Instead of imposing sanctions on Arab and Israeli citizens on their own, the United States is asking its allies, partners, and allies to work together to find solutions that would be humane and give Palestinians dignity, she said.
White House officials declined to comment on whether Trump would press Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to sign the second phase of the ceasefire agreement.
The first phase, poised to end on Feb. 18, includes the release of 33 Israeli hostages and more , Palestinian , prisoners, in addition to Israel withdrawing from most of , Gaza , and an increase in humanitarian aid.
The release of younger Israeli male hostages and Israel’s agreement to end the war are supposed to be the second steps. The third phrase would mark the end of the war, with bodies being exchanged, Israel withdrawing from Gaza entirely, and the reconstruction of the enclave starting.
The second official said that “we’ve had policies toward Israel for a year and a half that, in my opinion, have only prolonged this war and made it go on much longer than it should have.” ” The prime minister of Israel will be corrected right away and is being corrected by this meeting, where you see the very first head of state come to the White House, of course. The crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, was the first to receive President Trump’s phone call, of course.
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Before the leaders ‘ expanded bilateral meeting, press conference, and dinner, Trump will meet with Netanyahu on Tuesday afternoon.
Trump’s first administration saw the two men’s relationship grow, with decisions like moving the U.S. Embassy there in 2018 and recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital there. The president, too, acknowledged Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and negotiated the Abraham Accords.
