Statement by Trump: Of Gaza, “I’ve been there.”

In an interview that aired on the anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, former President Donald Trump said that he had been to Gaza.

Conservative radio show host Hugh Hewitt asked Trump whether Gaza could "be Monaco if it was rebuilt the right way? Could someone make Gaza into something that all the Palestinian people would be proud of, would want to live in, would benefit them?"

Trump said it could be the "most beautiful place."

"It could be better than Monaco. It has the best location in the Middle East, the best water, the best everything. It’s got, it is the best, I’ve said it for years," Trump said. "You know when — I’ve been there, and it’s rough. It’s a rough place, before the, you know, before all of the attacks and before the back and forth what’s happened over the last couple of years."

We asked the Trump campaign when he was in Gaza, who he was with and what he did there. The response we received did not answer those questions.

"President Trump has been to Gaza previously and has always worked to ensure peace in the Middle East," said Karoline Leavitt, a Trump campaign spokesperson. "He negotiated the historic Abraham Accords and brought stability to the region, which has unfortunately been destabilized again due to the Harris-Biden Administration’s weakness."

During Trump’s presidency, the Abraham Accords normalized diplomatic relations between Israel and some Arab countries, but Gaza was not a partner. Leaders of Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco signed the Abraham Accords in 2020.

The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN found no evidence that Trump visited Gaza. Neither did we. Several experts on Israel or Gaza told us that they had no evidence that Trump as president visited Gaza.

Trump-appointed former Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Schenker told CNN: "As far as I know, he’s never traveled there. He did not go in 2017 when he visited Israel."

A Trump campaign official who spoke to the Times on the condition of anonymity said: "Gaza is in Israel. President Trump has been to Israel."

Gaza is not in Israel. Israel has occupied Gaza since 1967 after the Six-Day War, but it has never annexed it.

Trump visited the West Bank

Trump has been to the West Bank, another territory occupied by Israel and home to Palestinians.

On May 23, 2017, Trump met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem in the West Bank, according to a State Department record of Trump’s presidential travels. That record does not mention Gaza. The same week, Trump also met in Jerusalem with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

After meeting with Abbas, Trump said he hoped to achieve a peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Bill Clinton visited Gaza

The last U.S. president to visit Gaza was Bill Clinton. On Dec. 14, 1998, Clinton spoke to the Palestinian National Council in Gaza City.

"This is a remarkable day," Clinton said "Today the eyes of the world are on you. I am profoundly honored to be the first American president to address the Palestinian people in a city governed by Palestinians."

Clinton cut the ribbon signifying the opening of the Gaza International Airport and stood alongside Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Ezzedine C. Fishere, a senior lecturer on Middle East politics at Dartmouth College, said Clinton’s appearance "was a huge deal for the Palestinians: world recognition, promise of a peaceful and dignified future, prospect of statehood — the embodiment of the best elements the Oslo agreements could offer."

Daniel Kurtzer, a former ambassador to Israel and Egypt and now a Princeton University professor, said that Clinton went to Gaza after being assured that Arafat would renounce or change the PLO Charter that had called for Israel’s destruction.

"The security situation in Gaza, even before Oct. 7, was enough of a reason for presidents not to visit," Kurtzer said. "The other reason was/is the fact that the Palestinian Authority headquarters is in Ramallah in the West Bank."

Clinton visited Gaza at a peaceful time, said Elliott Abrams, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations who served in President George W. Bush’s administration. No president has been there since, largely because of security concerns, Abrams said.

The State Department has repeatedly warned Americans to avoid Gaza.

The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem said Oct. 7, 2023, the day Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, that the "U.S. government personnel continue to be prohibited from travel to Gaza and areas within seven (7) miles of Gaza. "

Hamas is an Islamic militant group that formed in Gaza in the 1980s. The State Department designated it as a terrorist group in 1997. Hamas in 2006 won elections in the Palestinian territories and in 2007 took over Gaza. Hamas’ attack on multiple sites in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, was the deadliest attack on Israel in decades.

Fishere said that if Trump has ever visited Gaza, it must have been before 2006.

PolitiFact's ruling

Trump said he had been to Gaza.

His campaign provided no evidence that Trump visited Gaza. The State Department keeps a public log of presidents’ travels. It does not list Gaza as a place Trump visited. Multiple Middle East policy experts said Clinton was the last U.S. president to visit Gaza.

Lacking evidence, we rate Trump’s statement False.

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