US officials called Trump's plans for Gaza incomprehensible

US President Donald Trump's recent statements, including his proposal to establish military control over the Gaza Strip and evict Palestinians from there, have caused contradictory reactions in the American society. This was reported by The New York Times(NYT) on February 5

"This is literally the most incomprehensible policy proposal I've ever heard from an American president," the newspaper quotes Andrew Miller, a former Middle East policy adviser to Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden and now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

Since the beginning of his second term in the White House, Trump has promoted highly controversial and expansionist ideas about "redrawing the world map in the tradition of 19th century imperialism."

"First there was the purchase of Greenland, then the annexation of Canada, the return of the Panama Canal and the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico. And now he envisions taking over a devastated war zone in the Middle East," states the NYT.

It also notes that such a move would guarantee that the U.S. would be drawn into the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, something every American leader since Harry Truman has tried to avoid.

"The notion that the United States is going to take over Gaza, including with the deployment of American troops, is not just extreme, it is completely divorced from reality," said Hali Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America.

Meanwhile, Khaled Elgindi, a visiting fellow at Georgetown University's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, called Trump's plans to relocate Palestinians from Gaza "really bizarre and inconsistent."

"For whose benefit [will Gaza be resettled]? Certainly not for the Palestinians who are going to be resettled en masse. Will the US become the new occupier in Gaza, replacing the Israelis? What US interests would that serve?" he wondered.

Vague alternatives: in Palestine, a plan for the reconstruction of Gaza has been drawn up

However, Israel is blocking attempts by the NPA authorities to return to the exclave

Also on February 5, UN Secretary General António Guterres urged US President Donald Trump not to resort to ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip following his statements on Palestinian resettlement.

At the time, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on Trump's words, reminded that Russia's position on the issue is based on the two-state principle. This thesis, he emphasized, is enshrined in the relevant article of the UN Security Council.

In addition, The Wall Street Journal learned about Trump's conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during which the American leader spoke about "prime real estate" in Gaza.

The day before, Trump suggested that refugees from the Gaza Strip should be resettled to more livable places. He told reporters that a hypothetical resettlement of Palestinians could take place in Egypt or Jordan

The situation in the Middle East escalated on the morning of October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a massive rocket attack from the Gaza Strip into Israel. On the same day, Israel began retaliatory strikes.