Jared Kushner has praised Gaza as a valuable "waterfront property", and called for Israel to remove civilians before it "cleans up" the Strip in an interview at Harvard University on 15 February.
The former property dealer, Donald Trump’s son-in-law and former senior adviser said that “Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable … if people would focus on building up livelihoods.”
"It’s a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but from Israel’s perspective I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up," he said.
“But I don’t think that Israel has stated that they don’t want the people to move back there afterwards."
Kushner added that Israel's priority should be expelling civilians from the southern city of Rafah and "opening up" Negev desert before moving them on to Egypt "with diplomacy".
"I would just bulldoze something in the Negev, I would try to move people in there,” he said. “I think that’s a better option, so you can go in and finish the job."