Trump’s Gaza proposal, Mideast reaction and El Salvador’s prison offer
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Today, Trump says the U.S. will take over Gaza and that all Palestinians should leave. We hear the reaction from Palestinians on the ground and follow the journey of one family heading back home in Gaza after the ceasefire deal with Israel. Plus, El Salvador's offer to host U.S. prisoners. It's Wednesday, February 5th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday.

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The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it too. We'll own it. President Donald Trump says he wants the U.S. to take over the Gaza Strip and redevelop it after Palestinians are resettled somewhere else. Create an economic development that will supply

unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area. Trump selling the pitch, which upends decades of U.S. policy towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, much like the real estate developer that he is. Speaking at a press conference alongside Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the idea was worth considering. Trevor Honeycutt was at the White House.

His remarks raised a ton of questions from feasibility to legality. And the status of the Gaza Strip itself is something that has been in question for many years. The question of who owns the Gaza Strip and who will control the Gaza Strip is kind of one of the foundational questions of whether we'll ever get to a two-state solution that gives Palestinians a state.

We're talking about Palestinian people who were displaced and dispossessed from parts of what is now Israel. And Trump now has this idea of sending them to new places again. And so where these people would go, how they would get there, how the United States would control this territory, which is still extremely unstable and dangerous, whether troops would be involved.

All of that was left unanswered by this press conference. I think we're also interested in seeing how does this affect the ongoing Gaza ceasefire question? Does this provoke Hamas? Does this put the deal at risk that is allowing hostages now to come out of Gaza? And so all of those are kind of questions that we want to keep exploring in the next few days.

On the ground in Gaza, where the first phase of a fragile Israel-Hamas ceasefire is in effect, some families are just starting to get back to their homes. Ismail Mohammed, his wife and six children, have been living in a sprawling camp and are now heading back to their home in the north. It's an 11-mile walk to Jabalia, and for Ismail, it's a brutal one. He walks with a stick after his leg was injured in an airstrike.

and he lost an arm before the war to diabetes. At the end of their journey, they find the neighborhood and their house flattened. Many Palestinians say they want to go home despite the widespread destruction.

Our senior Palestinian territories correspondent is Nidal Al-Maghrabi. The Palestinians who rushed back after the ceasefire took effect, they rushed back to their homes in northern Gaza knowing that these houses may not be still standing, have rejected Trump's remarks. They want to go back to where they lived for much of their lives and even live in a tent but next to the rubble of their houses.

The issue of displacement is very sensitive to Palestinians in particular. Trump's remarks reminded the Palestinians of the 1948 Middle East war when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced to flee their hometowns and villages. The Palestinians were displaced in 1948. They called it a Nakba or catastrophe. And what has been the wider reaction in the Middle East? Hamas,

totally Trump's remark, described them as ridiculous and absurd. Saudi Arabia voiced their support to this two-state solution, so echoing again their outstanding position of supporting the Palestinians in establishing and having their own independent state. The

The Australian prime minister also reiterated the position of his government in supporting the two-state solution and the rights of the Palestinians to have their own state. It was a shock and surprise for many. Swedish police are warning that misinformation is being spread on social media following the country's deadliest gun attack.

Eleven people were killed at an adult education center on Tuesday. The suspected perpetrator is among the dead, and the motive is unknown. Federal government employee unions are suing the Trump administration to block its buyout for federal workers. The news comes after a U.S. official told Reuters that more than 20,000 employees are planning on taking the deal to receive pay and benefits through September 30th.

And the CIA has offered buyouts to its entire workforce, citing an aim to bring the agency in line with Trump's priorities. That's according to two sources familiar with the matter. Military aircraft carrying detained migrants flew to Guantanamo Bay on Tuesday. The Trump administration has said it will potentially house tens of thousands of migrants at the naval base in Cuba. Are you expecting a new crop top from Xi'an? Or maybe a t-shirt from Temem?

Well, you may be waiting. Kamal Crimmins is here to tell you why. So the U.S. Postal Service is temporarily suspending packages from China and Hong Kong, potentially delaying or blocking shipments from retailers like Shein and Timu.

The move comes after President Trump ended a trade exemption this week that's used by Chinese retailers to ship packages worth less than $800 duty-free to the US. It was removed as part of new US tariffs on Chinese goods, and its removal makes products sold by the likes of Xi'an and Timu more expensive. And if you're interested in understanding what Trump is doing with his tariffs and threats of tariffs, stay tuned for this week's Reuters Econ World podcast.

As we mentioned in the show yesterday, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has offered to house in his mega-prison dangerous criminals from anywhere in the world deported by the U.S. That offer is not just for migrants, but also includes criminals who are U.S. citizens, something that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio didn't outright reject despite the apparent illegality of such a move.

Reporter Sarah Knossian covers Central America. Sarah, can you describe this prison system that these migrants might be fed into? Bukele is most known for his crackdown on crime, particularly the country's notorious gangs. As part of that crackdown, he has suspended constitutional rights and El Salvador now has one of the highest incarcerated populations in the world. About 2% of adults are

are behind bars. So, you know, in El Salvador, the prison system before Bukele came in was notoriously overcrowded with terrible conditions, very underfunded. Once Bukele came in, as part of his crackdown on the gangs, he built a mega prison that has a capacity of around 40,000 people.

As of now, as far as I understand from Salvadoran human rights organizations, there are about 15,000 to 20,000 people that are currently in the jail, which means that there is space for it to be filled out. And so what does President Bukele get out of this potential deal with the U.S.? He put on X a

a message about how the United States was going to help with El Salvador's nuclear energy. There's also on the table this issue of TPS for Salvadorans. I believe around 250,000 have protected status in the United States. And in March, that would be the deadline for the Trump administration to revoke

TPS. And right now, around I think last year, about a quarter of El Salvador's economy was based on remittances, money sent to the country from diaspora, primarily in the United States.

Our recommended read today is a look back at the life of the Aga Khan, who has died aged 88. As the 49th hereditary imam of the world's 15 million Ismaili Muslims, his name also became synonymous with success as a racehorse owner, with the thoroughbred Shergar among his most famous.

You can hear more about him by following the link on the pod description. For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast player. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.