Majority of Americans think US takeover of Gaza ‘bad idea’: Survey

Forty-seven percent of those polled aren’t in favour of the US president’s plan, while only 13 percent think it is a “good idea”. Forty percent pf people responded that they were not sure, or that it depends.

Meanwhile, 54 percent of the people polled said they approved of Trump’s handling of the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Trump has stated the US will “take over” and “own” Gaza after resettling Palestinians elsewhere under an extraordinary redevelopment plan that he claimed could turn the enclave into “the Riviera of the Middle East”.

In a shock announcement upending decades of US policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Trump said on Tuesday that his administration would spearhead development in the enclave to “supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area”.

“The US will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it,” Trump said at the White House after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, adding that his administration would take responsibility for clearing destroyed buildings and dismantling “dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons”.

Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs Gaza, swiftly condemned the proposal as a “recipe for creating chaos and tension in the region”.

“Our people in the Gaza Strip will not allow these plans to pass,” the group announced in a statement.

“What is required is an end to the occupation and aggression against our people, not their expulsion from their land. Our people in Gaza have thwarted displacement and deportation plans under bombardment for more than 15 months.”