By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday there was nothing wrong in Donald Trump's idea of displacing Palestinians from Gaza after the U.S. president's proposal drew international criticism.
Rights groups have condemned as ethnic cleansing Trump's suggestion the previous day that Palestinians in the enclave should be permanently displaced, while also proposing a U.S. takeover of Gaza.
In an interview with Fox News, Netanyahu did not explicitly talk about Trump's idea of the United States taking over the Gaza Strip but backed the idea of "allowing Gazans who want to leave to leave."
He added, "I mean, what's wrong with that? They can leave, they can then come back, they can relocate and come back. But you have to rebuild Gaza."
Netanyahu said he did not believe Trump suggested sending U.S. troops to fight Hamas in Gaza or that Washington would finance rebuilding efforts.
"This is the first good idea that I've heard," he added. "It's a remarkable idea, and I think it should be really pursued, examined, pursued and done, because I think it will create a different future for everyone."
Since Jan. 25, Trump has repeatedly suggested that Palestinians in Gaza should be taken in by regional Arab nations such as Egypt and Jordan, an idea rejected by both the Arab states and Palestinian leaders.
Trump's aides defended his proposal but backed away from elements of it after international condemnation.
U.S. ally Israel's military assault on Gaza, now paused by a fragile ceasefire, has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians in the last 16 months, the Gaza health ministry says, and provoked accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies.
The assault internally displaced nearly all of Gaza's population and caused a hunger crisis.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on October 7, 2023, when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking some 250 hostages, Israeli tallies show.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Kim Coghill and Clarence Fernandez)
