“We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs.”

The comments came amid a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, during which the militant group has been turning over hostages in exchange for the release of prisoners held by Israel.

A ‘recipe for creating chaos’

“The kingdom of Saudi Arabia also stresses what it had previously announced regarding its absolute rejection of infringement on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, whether through Israeli settlement policies, annexation of Palestinian lands or efforts to displace the Palestinian people from their land,” the statement said.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters in Canberra, Australia, that his country has long supported a two-state solution in the Middle East and that nothing had changed.

New Zealand’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that its “long-standing support for a two-state solution is on the record” and added that it, too, “won’t be commenting on every proposal that is put forward.”

‘I thought we voted for America first’

“We have no business contemplating yet another occupation to doom our treasure and spill our soldiers blood.”

The idea “risks the rest of the world thinking that we are an unbalanced and unreliable partner because our president makes insane proposals,” Coons said, noting the irony of the proposal coming shortly after Trump had moved to dismantle the US Agency for International Development.

Democrat Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian American member of Congress from Michigan, accused Trump in a social media post of “openly calling for ethnic cleansing” with the idea of resettling Gaza’s entire population.