[Today's Prayer] Trump: "Build Gaza in another country"... Netanyahu: “We will take care of follow-up measures"

US President Donald Trump once again emphasized that he "owns" the Gaza Strip. He also added that he would allow other Middle Eastern countries to build parts of the Gaza Strip. In an interview with Fox News, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu actively supported President Trump's proposal and responded that Israel would take care of follow-up measures such as immigration.

On the 9th, while on his private plane (Air Force One) traveling to New Orleans, where the US professional football final, the Super Bowl, was held, President Trump told reporters, "We are committed to buying and owning the Gaza Strip. If we rebuild the Gaza Strip, we can give some of it to other Middle Eastern countries to build on. Others can build the Gaza Strip with our support."

He added, "We will own and occupy the Gaza Strip and will not allow the Palestinian armed group Hamas to return. There is no place to go back to. It is a demolition site. The rest will be demolished."

President Trump also asserted that Gazans would not want to return to Gaza if they had a place to go. “If we can provide them with a safer place to live, they don’t want to go back to Gaza. The only reason they are going back to Gaza is because they have no other alternative,” he said. He especially hoped that “very wealthy countries in the Middle East,” such as Saudi Arabia, would provide the money. He also hoped that Egypt and Jordan would cooperate,” and he said that he would allow Palestinian refugees to enter the United States through individual case reviews.

President Trump also said that he was losing patience with the health condition of the three Israeli male hostages who returned on the 8th as a result of the hostage exchange that was a condition of the first ceasefire negotiation between Hamas and Israel. “(They) looked like Holocaust survivors. They were in terrible condition. They were emaciated. I don’t know how much longer they can hold out,” he said. President Trump added that he would also meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

Recently, President Trump has stirred controversy by mentioning the relocation of Gaza residents to Jordan and Egypt and the reconstruction plan through real estate development in the Gaza Strip, drawing criticism from neighboring Arab countries as well as the international community for violating international law. However, he continues to make additional remarks without paying attention.

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Prime Minister Netanyahu added that “President Trump’s proposal is the first fresh idea in years, and I think it has the potential to change everything in Gaza,” and that it represents “the right approach” to the future of the Palestinian territory. Prime Minister Netanyahu said, “President Trump has never said that he wants the US military to do (relocation, etc.). We will do it.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu also emphasized that “the real issue is finding a country that will agree to accept the displaced Gazans.” He added, “Everyone describes Gaza as the world’s largest prison. Let the Gazan population leave. Not forced evictions or ethnic cleansing, but rescuing them from the ‘outdoor prison,’ as all countries and good people say. Why are you putting them in prison?” he also said.

The incident in May 1948 when Israel was established, destroying 500 Palestinian villages and forcibly relocating 750,000 people to the Gaza Strip, is called the “Nakba” (catastrophe) in the Arab world. After that, Israel annexed the Golan Heights, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Sinai Peninsula as Israeli territory in the Third Middle East War in 1967. Israel maintained a military presence in the Gaza Strip until it withdrew its settlers and troops in 2005. This is why it is interpreted that Prime Minister Netanyahu, encouraged by President Trump’s proposal, has once again mentioned the Israeli-led Palestinian migration plan.

Prime Minister Netanyahu, who returned to Israel on the 9th, held a cabinet meeting and said, “The conversation I had with the US president during this visit included an additional incredible achievement that will ensure Israel’s security for generations to come,” and added, “I will not exaggerate. There is an opportunity here for possibilities that we never dreamed of. At least until the last few months, it didn’t seem possible, but (now) it is possible,” the Israeli media outlet Times of Israel reported.

The successive statements by President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu are causing a huge stir throughout the Middle East. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the 9th (local time) and announced that an emergency Arab summit will be held on the 27th of this month to discuss the Palestinian issue. The 22 countries in the Middle East and North Africa are members.

Meanwhile, the second ceasefire negotiations are still shrouded in fog. Israel has stated that it will not agree to a complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip until Hamas’ military and political capabilities are eliminated. Hamas has stated that it will not hand over the last hostage until Israel withdraws all its troops.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that two women, including an eight-month pregnant woman, were killed by Israeli gunfire at the Nur Shams refugee camp in TulKarm, northwest of the West Bank. Lebanese state-run media NNA and AFP reported on the 9th that Israel bombed an underground tunnel used by the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah to smuggle weapons in the border area between Lebanon and Syria. The ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon is scheduled to expire on the 18th of this month.

Source: Naver News

Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. (Mark 14:38)

Lord, who is the Alpha and the Omega,

We pray that the global church will wake up and pray for the time that the Lord spoke of, as we see the endless conflict between the Jewish and Arab peoples centered around Jerusalem in these last days.

It seemed that the long Gaza Strip war had finally reached a ceasefire, but we know that in fact, true peace has not come. We confess that peace in Jerusalem and the world is only in the name of Jesus Christ, the Savior Lord.

The state of the world seems to be growing increasingly difficult due to the conflicts and problems between the Israeli people and numerous Arab and Islamic peoples, but our global church wants to wake up and see beyond this situation.

Please help the global church to stand against the false peace of religious unification and remember the covenant that the Lord made to Abraham, not the Abraham Accords, so that the kingdom of God can come to this land and the complete peace that the Lord gives can come!

The flow and movement of all world history will ultimately be fulfilled as the Lord promises and fulfills. Please help the global church to know that we must move forward in this time with hope and prayer, with faith that does not look to only what is seen!

Also, please have mercy on the suffering souls in Gaza who are feeling hopeless about their future lives during this time, and let them return to God the Father who leads us to our eternal home. Let the Israeli people, who are exhausted and weary from the ongoing war, come to know and return to the true God who loves and protects them forever.

Let the global church rise up as people who believe in and fulfill the covenant of God the Father who leads us to the end so that the kingdom of God may come to Israel, Palestine, and further to all peoples and nations in these last days!