The German government appears to have been caught off guard by the announcement of the US President to take over the Gaza Strip. In response to a request from the German news agency, government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said in Berlin on Wednesday that the government had learned of the plans “through the media”.
The government spokesperson was cautious in his assessment of the US President’s proposal, stating that he would wait to see how the situation develops and would only comment once the plans had been further clarified.
Hebestreit also drew a comparison to the previous Trump presidency, saying that the government should not get bogged down in speculating about individual statements and their potential implications. “We have a position on the Middle East conflict and we are working intensively towards a two-state solution” he emphasized.
Earlier, the US President had announced during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US would not only “take over” the Gaza Strip, but also “clean it up”. The Gaza Strip, he claimed, was completely destroyed and life there was dangerous. The US should become the owner of the Gaza Strip and be responsible for defusing all unexploded bombs and other weapons, razing the land and demolishing the destroyed buildings. Under US leadership, Gaza could become a “Riviera of the Middle East”, Trump suggested.
Looking at the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip, the US President had previously proposed that they be relocated to another location, possibly provided by one or more countries in the Middle East, such as Egypt or Jordan. Instead of Gaza, he suggested offering the Palestinians a “good, fresh, beautiful piece of land” to live on.