"Demolition Site": Trump Calls Gaza 'Blasted' Area After Two Years of Israeli Genocide, Adds, "I Don’t Know About the Riviera”
Washington (QNN)- US President Donald Trump said much of Gaza has been 'blasted' and now resembles a 'demolition site' after two years of Israeli genocide, adding, 'I don’t know about the Riviera for a while.'
Onboard Air Force One on Monday as he headed to Israel, Trump was asked whether he plans to move forward with his plans to turn Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Trump said, “I don’t know about the Riviera for a while because you take a look at what you have. You have to get people taken care of first.”
Trump said the process of clearing destroyed buildings and rubble in Gaza would “start, really, essentially immediately.”
“I mean, they’re going to have to start by removing a lot of the structures that you see that are down to the ground. I mean, it’s a very, it’s blasted,” he said. “This is like a demolition site.”
Trump said that he would be interested in visiting Gaza himself, adding: “I’d like to put my feet on it at least.”
The UN estimated that 92 percent of all residential buildings in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed since the war began in October 2023, and hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have been forced to live in tents and other makeshift shelters.
Trump announced in February that the US would “take over” the Gaza Strip and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”, while forcibly displacing Palestinians to other countries.
At the time, he said he envisioned “world people living there. The world's people. I think you'll make that into an international, unbelievable place.”
Trump’s plan was met with international outcry at the time, including from Palestinians, the Arab world and most of the international community.
Israel is holding the bodies of around 777 identified Palestinians, including 88 detainees who died in Israeli prisons amid reports of torture and medical negligence, according to a Palestinian organization advocating for their release.
Only five of the 450 Palestinian patients in critical condition will be allowed to leave the Gaza Strip on Monday, after Israel reopened the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt for limited traffic following two years of genocide and nearly 20 months of closure.
Newly released documents from the Epstein files show that Trump was “compromised by Israel,” that convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein was “co-opted Mossad Agent”, and that former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak sought Epstein’s help to secure an interview with Trump for Israeli media.