Far-fetched as Mr. Trump’s vision for Gaza may be — the Arab world has roundly rejected it and any forcible removal of a population violates international law — it abruptly shifted attention away from the future of the cease-fire deal, whose initial, six-week phase is due to end in early March.

"The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting. The Palestinians ... would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region," Trump said in a Truth Social post building on his controversial comments about Gaza's future this week.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will visit Israel and Arab states in mid-February, a State Department official said, making his first to the Middle East after a widely condemned proposal by President Donald Trump to displace Palestinians in Gaza.

Most Gaza residents are the descendants of Palestinian refugees driven to the enclave in a 1948 war. They harbor a deep fear of being uprooted again, and President Trump's remarks struck a raw nerve.