Israel gave away Gaza in exchange for peace, but that “didn’t work out” too well, says Trump.
By World Israel News Staff
US President Donald Trump challenged the narrative that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be solved with Israel ceding territory, stressing that the transformation of the Gaza Strip into a terror statelet proves that “land for peace” is not a solution.
“I don’t understand why Israel ever gave it up,” Trump said in a press conference held after he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday.
“Israel owned it. Netanyahu would have never given it up,” he added. “They took ocean-front property and gave it away for peace – how did that work out? Not good.”
Several minutes later in the press conference, Trump once again said that the Gaza Strip “should never have been given away.”
He said that Israel had ceded the territory because “they were promised peace, but that didn’t work out too well because it’s one of the most dangerous pieces of land anywhere in the world.”
After the 2005 disengagement, which saw a complete Israeli withdrawal of Jewish residents and military assets from the Strip, the coastal enclave was taken over by the Hamas terror group.
In the years since, Hamas has repeatedly fired rockets at Israeli communities, as well as coordinated terror attacks targeting Israeli civilians.
The October 7, 2023 massacres were the culmination of years of Hamas planning and intelligence-gathering, which took place virtually unhindered from within the Strip.
Israel has pledged to destroy Hamas and said that the terror group will no longer govern Gaza once the war is over.
Since assuming office, Trump has hinted that the US may recognize Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, paving the way for official Israeli annexation of the region.
Trump insinuated that the announcement would likely be made in March, but it has not yet happened.
