US President Donald Trump only wants Palestinians to leave Gaza temporarily while the territory is reconstructed, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday.
Trump stunned the world and drew condemnation when he proposed Tuesday at a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States could take over war-battered Gaza.
Trump's idea "was not meant as hostile. It was meant as, I think, a very generous move -- the offer to rebuild and to be in charge of the rebuilding," Rubio told reporters on a visit to Guatemala.
Trump offered a US "willingness to step in, clear the debris, clean the place up from all the destruction that's on the ground, clean it up of all these unexploded munitions," Rubio said.
"And in the meantime, the people living there will not be able to live there while you have crews coming in and removing debris," he said.
Trump wants to support "rebuilding homes and businesses and things of this nature, so that then people can move back in," he said.
With AFP
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