Success of Trump’s Gaza plan ‘very slim’: Ex-Israeli intelligence chief

"A very favorable plan has been presented to Israelis here and I hope it will come true,” Amos Yadlin, who led Israel's military intelligence from 2006 to 2010, told local radio 103 FM.

“However, I think the chance of this happening is very slim, and it also involves risks,” he added.

On Tuesday, the US president told a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US will “take over” Gaza and resettle Palestinians elsewhere under an extraordinary redevelopment plan that he claimed could turn the enclave into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”

His proposal was met with wide condemnations from the Palestinians, Arab countries and many other nations across the world, including Canada, France, Germany, and the UK.

Yadlin said Trump has repeatedly emphasized the importance of retrieving Israeli captives held by Palestinian groups in Gaza.

"I think he (Trump) gave Netanyahu a tool to move to the second stage (of the prisoner exchange agreement),” he said.

"Trump basically worked to stabilize the Israeli government, which was threatened to collapse by (Finance Minister Bezalel) Smotrich."

Smotrich has threatened to overthrow the Israeli government if it did not resume the war on the Gaza Strip.

Yadlin opined that Trump had sold Smotrich "illusions" about relocating Gaza’s population for the sake of advancing to the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire.

The former intelligence chief, however, backed the idea of expelling the Palestinians from Gaza to even "far from the Middle East," but said that the success chances of Trump's plan are very limited.

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.

His proposal to relocate Palestinians in Gaza came after a ceasefire agreement took effect in the enclave on Jan. 19, suspending Israel’s genocidal war, which killed over 47,500, injured over 111,000 people and left the enclave in ruins.