Rory Jones
WSJ, Feb. 14, 2025
“Because Gaza has changed hands so often, the legal framework governing individual ownership of the land is a knot of British, Egyptian and Palestinian laws.”
President Trump wants the U.S. to control the Gaza Strip, but it isn’t even clear who owns it. Determining that might be among the most complicated territorial questions on Earth.
The Palestinian enclave has an almost unique status, as well as a long history of changing hands, which makes figuring out who ultimately owns the tiny territory a matter of unpacking overlapping land laws laid down over centuries.
Who controls Gaza now?
Gaza is effectively run by Hamas militants, but the United Nations says it is unlawfully occupied by Israel. Most countries consider the war-torn Strip part of Palestine, which itself isn’t recognized as a state by the U.S., among others. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel doesn’t want to occupy Gaza at the end of the war, and he has praised Trump for what he said was creative thinking in proposing to relocate Palestinians from the Strip, something the U.N. has warned could contravene international law.
How would Trump take over?
Trump has offered few concrete details about his plans for Gaza, beyond saying the U.S. would invoke “United States authority” to control it. He has said that the U.S. wouldn’t buy Gaza or use American troops to take it, but that the U.S. should have long-term control to turn the Philadelphia-size territory into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
The nearly two million Palestinians living in Gaza would relocate to Jordan and Egypt in Trump’s vision. He has threatened to withhold aid from those countries if they refuse to take the displaced people, though he has since said such freezes wouldn’t be necessary….SOURCE