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Trump envoy says it is 'preposterous’ for Palestinians to expect Gaza reconstruction in 5 years

February 4, 2025 at 8:51 pm

Palestinians inspect debris of a building and wrecked vehicles after Israeli airstrike in Gaza Strip on January 14, 2025 [Hasan N. H. Alzaanin – Anadolu Agency]

It is “preposterous” for the Gaza Strip’s civilian population to expect the devastated coastal enclave will be rebuilt in the timeframe envisioned in an ongoing ceasefire agreement, President Donald Trump’s special envoy said Tuesday, Anadolu Agency reports.

Steve Witkoff, who recently visited Gaza during a regional trip, said it would take between three to five years just to dispose of the ruins scattered throughout Gaza, describing the envisioned five-year timelines as “physically impossible”. Witkoff sought to defend Trump’s statements to “clean out” Gaza, and displace the Territory’s population to Jordan and Egypt, saying the President is talking “about making it habitable.”

“This is a long-range plan,” he said. “The President is intent on getting it all done correctly. So, to me, it is unfair to have explained to Palestinians that they might be back in five years. That’s just preposterous.”

Mike Waltz, Trump’s National Security Advisor, said Jordanian King Abdullah will visit the White House next week, and said Trump spoke with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi on Tuesday. Trump, he said, is “absolutely engaged on the issue, and I think with his leadership we’ll be able to pull some solutions together.”

READ: Trump and Netanyahu set for pivotal talks on Middle East agenda

Witkoff sought to put distance between the Trump administration and the ongoing truce, saying it “wasn’t such a wonderful agreement that was first signed.”

“That was not dictated by the Trump administration. We had nothing to do with it. So now we’re working within that rubric, and we’re figuring things out,” he said after multiple figures, including Trump and several senior members of his administration, sought to portray the agreement as a product of the President’s diplomatic efforts led by Witkoff.

Waltz pegged the time it will ultimately take to rebuild Gaza between 10 and 15 years.

Earlier Tuesday, Hamas confirmed that negotiations for the second phase of the ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement have begun. Israel said it will send a negotiating team to Qatar this weekend for talks.

Negotiations on the second phase of the agreement were scheduled to start Monday, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided not to send his negotiators to Doha until he meets Trump at the White House, which is slated to occur Tuesday afternoon.

The first six-week phase of the ceasefire agreement took hold in Gaza on 19 January, halting Israel’s war that has killed more than 47,500 people, and left the enclave in ruins amid mass displacement of the civilian population and acute shortages of daily necessities.

The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants in November for Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

READ: Jordan, Egypt stress need for full implementation of Gaza ceasefire agreement