Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Donald Trump's widely criticized plan to move Palestinians from the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, stating that Israel was ready to "do the work."

In an interview broadcast Saturday night on Fox News, on the eve of the end of his visit to Washington, Netanyahu defended the American president's proposal, which has faced sharp condemnation worldwide. "I think that President Trump's proposal is the first new idea in years, and it has the potential to change everything in Gaza," Netanyahu asserted, seeing it as a "correct approach" for the future of the Palestinian territory.

"All Trump is saying is: 'I want to open the door and give them an option to move temporarily while we physically rebuild the place,'" he explained. Trump "never said he wanted American troops to do the work. Guess what? We are going to do the work," the Israeli prime minister added. "Hamas attacked us, and we are going to deal with it."

Israel conquered the Gaza Strip in 1967 before unilaterally withdrawing from it in 2005. Since 2007, following the takeover by the Palestinian Hamas movement, Israel has imposed a strict blockade on this territory. Gaza has been devastated by the war triggered by Hamas's bloody attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. For Netanyahu, the American president's plan marks a break from the "same old thing": "We leave, Gaza is once again occupied by these terrorists who use it as a base to attack Israel (...) It leads nowhere."

"I think we should pursue it," he added, warning that "the real issue" was finding a "destination" to host displaced Gazans. Simultaneously, he stated that Palestinians should "renounce terrorism" to be allowed back into Gaza.

The Palestinians reject any idea of forced relocation, associating it with the massive displacement following the creation of Israel in 1948. "Everyone describes Gaza as the largest open-air prison in the world. Do you know why? Because they are not allowed to leave," Netanyahu said about this besieged territory, shifting the responsibility to "their neighbor, Egypt."

"Let the people out, let them leave. No forced expulsion, no ethnic cleansing—let the people out of what all these countries and benefactors call an open-air prison. Why do you keep them in prison?"