Displaced Palestinians walk walk north from Gaza City shortly after a ceasefire deal was announced. (Photo: Omar al-Qataa/AFP via Getty

President Donald Trump claimed on Thursday that Israel will transfer Gaza to U.S. control at the end of the fighting and after the residents of the enclave have already been displaced, so there will be no need to use American troops.

Why it matters: Trump Truth Social post seemed to be aimed at pushing back on the criticism — including from some in his America First camp — that the plan he presented on Tuesday to displace two million Palestinians from Gaza and take over the enclave would embroil the U.S. in another costly conflict in the Middle East.

• Trump initially declined to rule out sending in U.S. troops on Tuesday and presented a plan that could include huge financial costs for the US.
• That’s a sharp shift from a president who has railed against U.S. military involvement and nation-building abroad, and one the White House now seems to be partially walking back.

Driving the news: Press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Wednesday that Trump was not committing U.S. troops and didn’t plan to use taxpayer dollars to rebuild Gaza.

• She said Palestinians from Gaza would only be “temporarily” displaced until Gaza is rebuilt, and that Trump is looking to make a deal on Gaza with countries in the region.
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said the displacement would be temporary and said Trumps move wasn’t meant as “hostile” but “generous.”
• “The whole region needs to come up with their own solutions if they don’t like Trump’s solution,” White House national security adviser Mike Waltz told CBS.

However, Palestinian leaders and many civilians have rejected Trump’s suggestion that all of the residents of Gaza would depart voluntarily to make way for a U.S.-led development project.

• “We would rather die in Gaza than leave it,” one Palestinian civilian told the BBC.

The latest: “The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting,” Trump wrote on Thursday.

• He stressed that “the Palestinians … would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region.”
• The president claimed that the U.S. will work with development teams from around the world to “slowly and carefully begin the construction” of Gaza.
• “No soldiers by the U.S. would be needed! Stability for the region would reign!!!”

Between the lines: There is a huge gap between the current reality and the one Trump is describing, in which Gaza is peaceful, emptied of Palestinians, and ready for rebuilding.

• To get there, the current ceasefire would likely have to end and Israel would have to fully reoccupy the Gaza Strip — something former President Biden and leaders around the world have urged Israel not to do.
• Israel would then have to evacuate two million Palestinians to other places in the region, a process experts have warned would mean ethnic cleansing.

The process Trump is describing could mean a dramatic extension of a war that has been going on for 16 months.

• More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war that started after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, according to the Hamas-controlled health ministry. The majority are believed to be civilians.

State of play: Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced on Thursday that he had instructed the IDF to prepare a plan “to provide the residents of Gaza with the option of voluntary departure.”

• “Gaza residents should be allowed to enjoy freedom of departure and migration as is customary everywhere in the world — the plan will include exit options at land crossings as well as special arrangements for exit by sea and air,” Katz said.
• Egypt, Jordan and many other countries in the region have made clear in recent days that they oppose any plan for displacing Palestinians from Gaza. Leaders from both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas have condemned Trump’s plan.
• Meanwhile, leaders from around the region and the world have issued statements insisting that Gaza should be part of a future Palestinian state, not an overseas territory of the U.S.