Kushner eggs on ‘clean up’ of Gaza shore

Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and former White House adviser, has praised the ‘‘very valuable’’ potential of Gaza’s waterfront real estate, suggesting that Israel should remove civilians while it ‘‘cleans up’’ the area.

‘‘Gaza’s waterfront property, it could be very valuable, if people would focus on building up livelihoods,’’ Kushner said in an interview dated February 15, posted this month on the YouTube channel of the Middle East Initiative, a program of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, and reported yesterday by The Guardian.

‘‘If you think about all the money that’s gone into this tunnel network and into all the munitions, if that would have gone into education or innovation, what could have been done?

‘‘It’s a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but I think from Israel’s perspective, I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up,’’ Kushner added. ‘‘But I don’t think that Israel has stated that they don’t want the people to move back there afterwards.’’

Responding on X to ‘‘those dishonestly using selected parts’’ of his remarks to criticise him, Kushner posted a video of the entire interaction, saying he stood by his comments and believed ‘‘the Palestinian people’s lives will improve only when the international community and their citizenry start demanding accountability from their leadership’’.

About 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, as Israel seeks to eliminate Hamas following the militant group’s deadly October 7 attack. More than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 70,000 wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to send a team of Israeli officials to Washington to discuss a prospective Rafah operation with Biden administration officials.

US President Joe Biden and Netanyahu spoke on Monday, their first interaction in more than a month, as the divide has grown between the allies over the food crisis in Gaza and Israel’s conduct during the war. White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the talks in coming days were expected to involve military, intelligence and humanitarian experts.

In the interview last month, Kushner suggested that getting civilians out of Rafah, and potentially into Egypt, might be possible ‘‘with the right diplomacy’’, and posited a plan for the Negev desert in Israel. Kushner suggested that he ‘‘would just bulldoze something in the Negev, I would try to move people in there’’, adding: ‘‘I know that won’t be the popular thing to do, but I think that’s a better option to do, so you can go in and finish the job.

‘‘I think Israel’s gone way more out of their way than a lot of other countries would, to try to protect civilians from casualties,’’ he said.

Kushner worked on a range of issues in the Trump administration, including Middle East peace efforts.

Noting that he was not interested in rejoining the White House if Trump wins the election, Kushner said he was focused on his investment business and his family.