White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt repeatedly said Wednesday that President Donald Trump was advocating for a “temporary” relocation of Palestinians from Gaza — a view that on its surface appeared at odds with the plan Trump revealed a day earlier to “resettle people permanently” in a different area.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Leavitt said Trump had been weighing the plan for some time, but that it hadn’t been written down before Tuesday’s news conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Later, asked if the president’s plan would mean “any and all Palestinians who want to stay in Gaza on their land will be allowed to do so,” she repeated the assertion Trump was looking for only temporary resettlement.
She said two more times that Palestinian refugees would be relocated “temporarily,” including when questioned whether her use of the word amounted to a specific shift.
What Trump has said Tuesday: “You look over the decades, it’s all death in Gaza. This has been happening for years. It’s all death. If we can get a beautiful area to resettle people permanently in nice homes and where they can be happy and not be shot, not be killed, not be knifed to death like what’s happening in Gaza,” he said alongside Netanyahu.
Later, he said he did not believe returning to Gaza should be an option. And asked whether Palestinians should have a right to return to Gaza during the rebuilding, Trump said he couldn’t see it.
