US President Donald Trump speaks at the White House in Washington, DC. AFP
The US president made the comments to reporters in the Oval Office in response to a question about whether he’s planning on introducing a new hostage deal proposal before he meets with Arab Gulf leaders in the region next week.
Earlier on Wednesday, five sources told Reuters that the United States and Israel have discussed the possibility of Washington leading a temporary post-war administration of Gaza.
The sources said high-level consultations have centred around a transitional government headed by a US official overseeing Gaza until it has been demilitarized and stabilized, and a viable Palestinian administration has emerged.
According to the discussions, which remain preliminary, there would be no fixed timeline for how long such a US-led administration would last, which would depend on the situation on the ground.
The sources, who spoke anonymously, compared the proposal to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq that Washington established in 2003, shortly after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
The sources told Reuters that other countries would be invited to participate in the US-led authority in Gaza, but they did not identify which ones.
They said the administration would draw on Palestinian technocrats but would exclude Islamist group Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, and the Palestinian Authority, which holds limited authority in the occupied West Bank.
On Wednesday, US special envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff briefed the UN Security Council on aid to Gaza, a US and a UN diplomat who spoke anonymously told AP.
In tandem, the State Department said on Wednesday that the US would likely make an announcement later this week about the resumption of aid into Gaza.
According to media reports, the US is supporting a proposal for a new independent foundation to facilitate aid deliveries under Israeli supervision.
On 18 March, Israel unilaterally ended the ceasefire with Hamas, brokered by the US, Egypt, and Qatar on 19 January, to resume its genocidal war on the strip.
Since then, Israel has killed and wounded thousands of Palestinians, pushing the death toll over 52,000 and the number of injured over 120,000.
Moreover, since 2 March, Israel has blocked the entry of food, water, shelter, or medicine into Gaza, leaving more than two million Palestinians in the strip on the brink of starvation.
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