Egypt Daily News – The U.S. envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, stated that Trump’s plan for Gaza is not about the displacement of Palestinians but rather aimed at creating a better reality for them. He explained that Trump’s approach is: “Do the Palestinians want to live in Gaza, or do they want a better place?”
Witkoff affirmed that Trump’s plan for Gaza would attract top experts in reconstruction and development.
He added that there is a possibility of success for the second phase would be more complex than the first phase but noted “a lot of progress” in negotiations and said the American president’s comments on taking over Gaza were “misconstrued.”
“The issue with phase two is that there’s supposed to be an end to the war as part of [it], and I think the Israelis have a red line, which is, you can’t have Hamas. And so it’s hard to sort of square that circle, but we’re making a lot of progress in the conversations, and hopefully, it will lead to some good things, good results,” Steve Witkoff said.
“In typical fashion, the president said some things, and again, it got misconstrued,” he quipped.
Witkoff said the basic premise of what Trump was referring to was that solutions that have not worked over the last 50 years should not be tried again. “That makes no sense.”
Witkoff further defended Trump’s comments and said there was no intention of an “eviction plan.”
“When [Trump] talks about this, it means that he wants to shake up everybody’s thinking and think about what is compelling for that area and what is the best solution for the Palestinian and Gazan people who live there,” he said.
As a result of Trump’s proposal, according to Witkoff, the Arab world is now coming up with different types of solutions that before Trump’s comments, “people would have never considered, and I think that’s a good thing.”
