AMNA NAWAZ: Welcome to the "News Hour."

President Trump's proposal to -- quote -- "take over" Gaza and relocate two million Palestinians to other countries is being condemned across the region.

The announcement came at a joint press conference with Israel's prime minister yesterday, where President Trump promised to turn the war-ravaged area into a -- quote -- "Riviera" of the Middle East.

William Brangham reports.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Standing beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Trump issued what amounts to a thunderclap across the Middle East: Gaza will be rebuilt, but under U.S. ownership.

DONALD TRUMP: We will own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated places on Earth.

But, for 15 months, Israeli bombs have turned most of Gaza into a gray ghost town of dust and debris.

Israel's air campaign, one of the largest in modern warfare, flattened entire neighborhoods.

Israel says Hamas' elaborate tunnel network and the group's practice of embedding its soldiers inside civilian areas meant they had no other choice.

But President Trump, who made his name as a New York real estate developer, said he will transform this area into something magnificent.

DONALD TRUMP: I don't want to be cute.

I don't want to be a wise guy, but the Riviera of the Middle East.

This could be something that could be -- this could be so magnificent.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the man who led Israel's war in Gaza, stood beside the president in complete agreement.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, Israeli Prime Minister: Your willingness to think outside the box with fresh ideas will help us achieve all these goals.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Outside the White House, hundreds of people protesting Israel's onslaught in Gaza called for Netanyahu's arrest.

President Trump said his determination to own and develop Gaza was being welcomed.

DONALD TRUMP: Everybody I have spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land, developing and creating thousands of jobs.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: But leaders in the Middle East flat-out rejected the idea.

Saudi Arabia said its position the establishment of a Palestinian state run by Palestinians was -- quote -- "firm and unwavering" and "non-negotiable and not subject to compromise."

Leaders in Jordan and Egypt also rejected the idea.

And similar reactions also poured in from Turkey, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Australia, Ireland, Brazil, Russia, and China.

In Washington, Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland called the idea ethnic cleansing.

SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): He just said that it will be United States policy to forcibly displace two million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

That is ethnic cleansing by another name.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: But the president's own party stands behind his move.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio: MARCO RUBIO, U.S. Secretary of State: People can move back in, but in the meantime they will have to live somewhere.

Now, the details of that, if it was accepted, would have to be worked out among multiple partner nations.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson: REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): This is a bold, decisive move.

And I think you have to do something to eradicate the threat to Israel.

It just makes sense to make the neighborhood there safer.

I think that's logical.

I think it follows common sense.

I think people understand the necessity of it.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: President Trump argued that the Palestinians themselves will welcome his plan.

DONALD TRUMP: The only reason the Palestinians want to go back to Gaza is, they have no alternative.

It's right now a demolition site.

This is just a demolition site.

Virtually every building is down.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: But despite that destruction, last week, many Palestinians returned home as soon as they were permitted by Israeli forces, on foot, in carriages and cars, walking over the remnants of their communities.Some rode on the backs of others.

Today, Palestinians told the "News Hour" that they reject the president's plan.

AHMED AL LOUDH, North Gaza Resident (through translator): The last thing we would do is leave Gaza.

I'd rather die than leave, no matter the reason.

Even if they said they'd give me a million dollars, I wouldn't leave my home, no matter the reason.

YOUSSEF AL SABAH, North Gaza Resident (through translator): We reject this decision.

The Palestinian people will persevere in our land.

The Gaza people are anchored to this land.

I think this decision will not pass.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, for more on President Trump's proposal for Gaza, we're joined again by Marwan Muasher.

He's the former foreign minister and deputy prime minister of Jordan and is now here in Washington, D.C., as vice president at the Carnegie Endowment.

Marwan Muasher, so good to have you back on the program.

MARWAN MUASHER, Former Jordanian Foreign Minister: Good to be here.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: We should say at the outset that Gaza is not an American territory, and yet we have an American president who says the Americans will seize it, we will redevelop it, and we will own it.

What is your reaction to this?

MARWAN MUASHER: Well, a lot of reactions.

It's bizarre that the U.S. president says this about territory not owned by the United States.

Senator Van Hollen was very accurate in calling it ethnic cleansing.

There is no other way to say it.

Palestinians are not being asked whether they want to leave or not, and it's clear that they have not left.

After 15 months of bombing, they are not crowding at the Egyptian border.

They went back to their homes, knowing that their homes are gone.

Let me also remind people that Palestinians in Gaza are themselves already refugees.

They came from other parts of historic Palestine in 1948.

They already know what will happen to them if they, as Senator Rubio -- Secretary Rubio said, if they temporarily relocate.

There is no such thing as temporary relocation with Israel.

There are many U.N. resolutions, the most famous of which is 194, that have asked Israel to return back Palestinians who were forcibly displaced in 1948.

And Israel has not allowed a single one.

So Palestinians know that, this time around, if they leave their home, they are not going back to it.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: We heard in that tape a good deal of the condemnation from nations all across the world.

Your own nation, Jordan, is one of the countries that President Trump said the Palestinians should move to.

What is Jordan's reaction to this specifically?

MARWAN MUASHER: Jordan cannot receive any more Palestinian refugees than it has already.

First of all, Jordan has no geographical borders with Gaza.

And so it is not understood why Jordan is being asked to receive Palestinians from Gaza.

What this is doing, it seems to me, is giving Prime Minister Netanyahu a green light to annex the West Bank.

And that is Jordan's also real concern, that, by saying Israel is too small, by saying Palestinians should move out, President Trump is basically suggesting that Israel can go ahead and annex the West Bank, much in the same way that he -- that Israel wants to drive Palestinians out of Gaza.

That is a big concern to Jordan.

That is going to pose economic security problems for Jordan and an identity problem to the country.

Imagine if all of Canada suddenly moves to the United States.

It would change the whole demographic and character of the state.

And that is why, in my view, Jordan will not accept under any conditions, and no matter what the threats are, becoming -- any number of Palestinians, not to say that Palestinians don't want to come, and also not to say that Jordan's main concern, main reason for signing the treaty with Israel has been to prevent against mass transfer.

This is going to be a clear violation of the Jordan-Israel peace treaty.

And it's going to give fuel to the Israeli right who wants to annex the whole land and have a solution at Jordan's expense.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Right.

This is right in line with what a lot of the conservative Israelis want.

Do you think that we are paying too much attention to this issue?

I mean, this came out of the blue.

It seemed that President Trump was making this sort of evolving plan in his own mind yesterday as the day progressed.

Do you think we're focusing too much on something that may never really come to pass?

MARWAN MUASHER: I don't think it will come to pass.

There are no tools for it to come to pass.

I don't imagine that President Trump is going to send U.S. troops to the region.

That's going to be hugely unpopular with... WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Although the U.S. defense secretary today, Pete Hegseth, said he would be open to that idea if the president wanted it.

MARWAN MUASHER: I don't think the U.S. public will be open to that idea.

After the Iraq War, the United States does not want to get involved militarily outside.

So -- sorry, I lost my train of thought here.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I mean, is it your sense that this is simply a gambit, a negotiating tactic by Trump?

MARWAN MUASHER: It might -- well, it might be.

But I want to say that every time the president of the United States says something, people have to take it seriously.

And the decision-making process cannot be done in such a way that a president says something and then people have to follow.

This is going to be dangerous not just for the Palestinians, but for Jordan, for Egypt.

And it should be taken very seriously before such statements come out.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Marwan Muasher, as always, thank you so much for being here.

MARWAN MUASHER: Thank you.