President Donald Trump said Thursday that Gaza would be “turned over” by Israel to the United States when the conflict is over, and no soldiers would be needed for his subsequent takeover and redevelopment plan. Trump doubled down on the shock plan he first announced on Tuesday — and on his plan to resettle two million Palestinians elsewhere from Gaza in the Middle East — on his Truth Social network. “The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting,” Trump said in an early morning post. “No soldiers by the US would be needed! Stability for the region would reign!!!” Trump stunned the world by announcing during a joint press conference with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Tuesday that “the US will take over the Gaza Strip.” “We will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it,” he said to audible gasps during the press conference, saying the United States would remove unexploded bombs and rubble and rebuild the war-torn enclave. But he offered few details and his administration appeared to backtrack Wednesday after facing a wave of criticism from Palestinians, Arab governments and world leaders. Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the idea “was not meant to be hostile,” while the White House said there was no commitment to sending US troops and that any displacement of Palestinians would be “temporary.” The Republican president however showed Thursday that he still wanted to press ahead with the plan as he had originally announced it, including the mass displacement of Palestinians. Trump said that by the time of his planned handover by Israel to the United States Palestinians “would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region.” “They would actually have a chance to be happy, safe, and free,” Trump added. Responding, Pakistan on Thursday said that the proposal to displace the people of Gaza was deeply troubling and unjust. Foreign Office Spokesperson Ambassador Shafqat Ali Khan, in a statement, said that the Palestinian land belonged to the Palestinian people and the only viable and just option was the two-state solution, in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions. He said that Pakistan had been and would continue to stand by the people of Palestine in their just struggle for self-determination, as well as for the establishment of a sovereign, independent, and contiguous Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital. Ambassador Khan said any attempts to displace the Palestinians from their land as well as to continue illegal settlements would be a blatant violation of international law, and undermine the peace and security of the entire region. “Pakistan reiterates its call for the return of all displaced Palestinians to their homes, including in Gaza; complete withdrawal of the Israeli forces from the occupied territories, upscaling of the humanitarian assistance and end to all obstructions, as well as concerted international efforts for the early reconstruction of Gaza,” he said.