US president's bizarre plan provokes global outrage

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Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu of Israel speaks as president Donald Trump listens during a news conference in the White House on Tuesday. Photograph: Tierney L. Cross
Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu of Israel speaks as president Donald Trump listens during a news conference in the White House on Tuesday. Photograph: Tierney L. Cross

At the White House on Tuesday US president Donald Trump announced an outrageous idea to solve the war in the Gaza.

The US, he said, would seize control of Gaza and permanently displace the entire Palestinian population; the US would turn it into “the Riviera of the Middle East”.

The declaration was made at a joint press conference at The White House with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who welcomed the idea without explicitly endorsing it.

The suggestion was roundly condemned across the Arab world and criticised by western leaders, the UN and NGOs like Amnesty International.

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Sky’s Middle Eastern correspondent Alistair Bunkall says Trump’s answer to an entrenched geopolitical problem might be so bizarre that it may point to something bigger.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Aideen Finnegan.

Bernice Harrison

Bernice Harrison

Bernice Harrison is an Irish Times journalist and cohost of In the News podcast