President Trump dances as his marketing campaign music “God Bless the U.S.A.” performs on stage on the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar on Could 15, 2025.
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Win McNamee/Getty Pictures Europe
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, and AL-UDEID AIR BASE, Qatar — President Trump stated on Thursday the Gaza Strip needs to be made right into a “freedom zone,” doubling down on his proposal to displace Palestinians from the territory simply as Israel plans a serious offensive and intensifies lethal airstrikes, killing greater than 150 individuals up to now day, together with dozens of youngsters.
Trump is on the final leg of a visit to the Center East – a go to that didn’t embrace a cease in Israel. He has primarily skirted the difficulty of the warfare in Gaza in his public remarks in the course of the journey, however made feedback to reporters after a roundtable with enterprise leaders in Qatar.
“Gaza has been a territory of death and destruction for many years,” Trump stated. “I have concepts for Gaza that I think are very good — make it a freedom zone. Let the United States get involved and make it just a freedom zone.”
Israel’s far-right authorities has embraced Trump’s proposals on Gaza to displace Palestinians completely exterior the territory and switch it right into a seaside real-estate improvement. Trump’s newest feedback on Gaza have been made whereas he was nonetheless in Qatar. All Arab states have rejected the plan, and Hamas has known as it ethnic cleaning.
Trump’s remarks about Gaza got here on the identical day the variety of Palestinians killed in Israeli assaults within the warfare surpassed 53,000 individuals — a 3rd of them kids, based on Gaza’s well being ministry. A whole bunch of Palestinians have been killed this week in intensified Israeli airstrikes, based on hospitals and well being officers contacted by NPR.
Trump described aerial photographs of the widespread destruction from Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.
“There’s practically no building standing. It’s not like you’re trying to save something,” he stated.
A person holds the physique of a kid at a hospital morgue in Beit Lahia, Gaza as he stands subsequent to the our bodies of different members of the family killed in Israeli airstrikes in northern Gaza on Could 14, 2025.
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Ceasefire talks stall even whereas Trump in Qatar, the place talks are occurring
Solely a day earlier than Trump arrived within the Center East, Hamas freed U.S.-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander, an Israeli soldier taken captive by Palestinian militants within the Oct. seventh, 2023 assault on Israel. The discharge raised hopes that the US may push ahead a ceasefire.
However talks seem caught with no progress being made in current days, regardless of the presence of Israeli negotiators in Qatar this week and a go to by Trump’s Mideast Envoy Steve Witkoff to Israel on Tuesday.
Hamas agreed to launch Alexander after uncommon direct talks with the Trump administration in Qatar earlier than the president’s tour of the Gulf. These talks sidestepped Israel’s prime minister, who’s below rising stress at residence to strike a deal that frees hostages. Hamas needs U.S. ensures {that a} deal releasing remaining Israeli hostages can be in alternate for an finish to warfare and Israel eradicating its troops from Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted on solely a brief truce to free some hostages. He has vowed to return to warfare after any pause in preventing with the purpose of eliminating Hamas and disarming the group.
Whereas within the Gulf, Trump heard from the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Qatar on the necessity to finish the warfare in Gaza. The Saudi crown prince made these remarks at a Gulf Arab leaders’ summit with Trump, and Qatar’s ruling emir was heard elevating the difficulty with Trump upon his arrival to Doha on Wednesday.
Israel, nevertheless, is planning an offensive to take over extra territory in Gaza and has known as up tens of hundreds of reservist troopers in preparation. Israel additionally has plans to roll out a U.S-backed plan to distribute meals rations to Palestinians who can be forcibly displaced to small zones of southern Gaza.
Israel says its purpose is to make sure Hamas doesn’t entry or profit from support. U.N. organizations and different support teams in Gaza refuse to take part within the new scheme, saying it will put Palestinians at higher danger and additional displace the inhabitants.
Israel has imposed greater than two months of blockade on the territory, barring the entry of all support, together with meals, gas and drugs. The blockade has pushed half one million individuals in Gaza to hunger, based on the newest evaluate by unbiased specialists on famine. Israel’s blockade has sparked widespread criticism from international locations around the globe, in addition to support organizations and rights teams.
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani discuss to President Donald Trump on the Al-Udeid air base on Could 15, 2025.
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Brendan Smialowski/AFP
Trump’s focus is on large funding offers within the Gulf
Trump’s go to to the Gulf has targeted on multibillion-dollar offers that increase funding in U.S. corporations, like an order signed by Qatar on Wednesday for as much as 210 Boeing airplanes.
Main offers have been additionally signed throughout his two-day cease in Saudi Arabia this week in know-how and AI, however the bulk of investments and gross sales to Gulf states are in U.S. protection and weaponry.
Trump gave rally-style remarks on Thursday to hundreds of U.S. troops stationed in Qatar’s Al-Udeid Air Base, falsely telling them he had received the 2020 election, and describing the Biden administration as “evil.”
“You are, without a doubt, the greatest fighting force in the history of the world,” he stated, adapting his marketing campaign slogan to inform troops they have been “making America great again” and describing his administration’s efforts to finish variety initiatives within the army.
“We don’t care if you’re politically correct,” he stated.
The sprawling air base has been utilized by the U.S. for airstrikes towards the Islamic State group and different operations within the Center East. The U.S. additionally has the Navy’s fifth Fleet positioned off the coast of Bahrain, and troops current at bases within the UAE, the place the president is slated to spherical out his Gulf tour on Friday.
Aya Batrawy reported from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
