Would a US takeover of Gaza be against international law?
Newshour
BBC
4.4 • 984 Ratings
🗓️ 6 February 2025
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In a social media post earlier today, US President Donald Trump seemed to double down on claims his country would fight to control the territory of Gaza. He had also suggested recently at a press conference that Palestinians should leave the region and be taken in by neighbouring nations. We explore to what extent a US takeover of Gaza would be in violation of international law.
Also on the programme: A US immigration lawyer weighs in on whether President Trump can end birth-right citizenship, after the US leader tried to have the constitutional right rescinded; new findings on where Indo-European languages originated; and the launch of lab-grown meat for dogs in a world first.
(Photo: Demonstrators attend a protest against US President Donald Trump's plan to resettle Palestinians from Gaza, in front of the US consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, 6th February 2025. Credit: Umit Bektas/REUTERS)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service. We're coming to you live from London. I'm James Menendez. |
| 0:10.4 | And we're going to start with the continuing fallout from President Trump's shock announcement of a new plan for Gaza, |
| 0:16.7 | fallout that's been reverberating around the world over the past 48 hours. At about this time |
| 0:21.9 | yesterday, it seemed as if some in the administration were trying to dampen down some of the |
| 0:26.5 | proposal's sharpest edges, in particular the question of moving Gazans out of the territory. |
| 0:32.9 | By early this morning, Washington time, Mr. Trump was doubling down, saying in a social media |
| 0:37.4 | post that Israel would hand control of Gaza to the US once the fight This morning, Washington Time, Mr. Trump was doubling down, saying in a social media post |
| 0:37.8 | that Israel would hand control of Gaza to the US once the fighting was over. |
| 0:42.9 | We voiced up some of what he wrote. |
| 0:45.2 | The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting. |
| 0:50.9 | The Palestinians would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities with new and modern homes in the region. |
| 0:59.0 | They would actually have a chance to be happy, safe and free. |
| 1:02.9 | The US, working with great development teams from all over the world, would slowly and carefully begin the construction of what would become one of the greatest |
| 1:12.2 | and most spectacular developments of its kind on earth. No soldiers by the US would be needed. |
| 1:19.1 | And the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been speaking within the past hour or so to journalists. |
| 1:25.1 | He's on a visit to the Dominican Republic. He was asked about the plan |
| 1:29.1 | to move Palestinians out of Gaza. Gaza right now has unexploded munitions, lots of rockets and |
| 1:35.8 | weapons and other things that Hamas was using there, and that needs to be dealt with. And it's |
| 1:41.1 | very difficult to do that when you have populations on top of you. |
| 1:49.3 | If some other countries willing to step forward and do that job themselves, then I encourage them to do so. |
| 1:55.5 | President Trump wants Egypt and Jordan to take in Gazans while the strip is being cleared and rebuilt. |
| 1:58.5 | But both countries have flatly ruled that out. |
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