How Palestinians in New York Feel About Trump’s Gaza Takeover Plan

Good morning. It’s Thursday. Today we’ll look at how Palestinian families in the New York area are reacting to President Trump’s proposal to take over Gaza. We’ll also learn about Mayor Eric Adams’s explanation for his health-related absence.

President Trump’s proposal this week for an American “takeover” of the Gaza Strip and the removal of its Palestinian population has horrified Palestinian families in the New York area, even if some of them are not surprised.

My colleagues Liam Stack, Katherine Rosman and Sharon Otterman reported on the reactions Wednesday. Noreen Rashid, 22, of Rockaway, N.J., said she had long feared that the United States or Israel might take over Gaza. Mr. Trump made the proposal during a White House news conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Tuesday.

Rashid said the president’s plan had made her reflect sadly on her last visit to see her relatives in Gaza, just one month before the war between Hamas and Israel began in October 2023.

“I saw the last of it, and the best of it,” she said. “Now I’m thinking about when I have children, and it’s an out-of-body experience to know they will never know Gaza — that it’s all going to be Trump villas.”