President Trump’s proposal to take over Gaza would have to overcome or ignore many serious obstacles, including that forcibly removing its entire population would be a violation of international law.

But aside from legal challenges, there is the hard fact that unexploded munitions litter the territory after months of Israeli bombardment, posing a lethal danger to anyone in Gaza for the foreseeable future.

In his remarks unveiling the idea last week, Mr. Trump suggested that he had thought about it. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site,” he said.

The president has said he might send the military to Gaza as an occupation force, but federal law prohibits U.S. troops from doing demining missions. Instead, that work falls to the State Department, which provides funding to nongovernmental organizations to do the job.

And that is where the White House has created an unforced problem for itself.

On Jan. 25, the State Department issued a stop-work order to all of the nonprofit organizations it funds to find, remove and destroy unexploded munitions around the world. Many of those charities would almost certainly be called on to clear Gaza once the fighting stops.

The U.N. agency responsible for monitoring global explosive contamination and funding many of those groups has asked the State Department for an exception to its 90-day hold on foreign aid so its lifesaving work could continue. But Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejected that request, according to a U.N. spokesman.

The State Department provided no additional information on its decision.

The issue came up again on Sunday, when Mr. Trump mentioned Gaza on his way to the Super Bowl. “Think of it as a big real estate site, and the United States is going to own it,” he said on Air Force One.

The Israeli military has used a wide array of explosive munitions in Gaza since the Hamas-led attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people. Israel’s bombardment of the territory, mostly with U.S.-made weapons, has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians since the start of the war, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

The number of weapons Israel has used against Gaza is not publicly known. But a New York Times investigation in December found that Israel had launched, fired or dropped nearly 30,000 munitions into the territory in the first seven weeks of the war, more than in the next eight months combined.

“Munitions like bombs, rockets or mortars have an inherent failure rate, but when used in an urban environment like Gaza, there is also potential for them to graze their targets instead of striking them squarely,” the bomb-disposal expert Colin King said in an interview. “That can damage, deflect or slow them down enough that their fuzes won’t work properly upon impact, causing them to not detonate and instead become unexploded hazards in an armed and highly unpredictable condition.”

Some bomb-disposal experts have said that as much as 10 percent of the weapons Israel has used in Gaza may have failed to explode and can remain as hazardous duds for decades or even centuries until they are found and cleared.

Locating and extracting deeply buried bombs — such as those Israel has dropped to attack Hamas tunnels — is rarely possible, according to Fenix Insight, a firm co-founded by Mr. King that provides technical support to munitions experts and deminers. Postwar reconstruction often begins with unexploded bombs remaining beneath the surface.

Fenix Insight has analyzed nearly 21,000 separate incidents involving explosive weapons used by Israel and Hamas in Gaza since the war began, Mr. King said, including duds, weapons caches and places where munitions exploded.

Men and women who do such work are commonly called deminers, even though they are trained to clear explosive weapons of all kinds, not just land mines.

The United Nations Mine Action Service has had deminers in Gaza since 2009 and they have remained there throughout the war. Since the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas went into effect on Jan. 19, they have begun surveying the destroyed landscape for unexploded munitions as a crucial first step in their work.

The United States has spent about $5 billion on demining efforts in 125 countries since those efforts began in 1993, according to a recent State Department report.

That was two years before the United States normalized diplomatic relations with Vietnam.

Providing that funding was a sign of good will. American combat operations in Vietnam had ended 20 years earlier, but unexploded U.S. weapons scattered about the country continued to kill scores of civilians every year after — as they did in Cambodia and Laos as well.

From 1965 to 1973, the U.S. Air Force dropped nearly 770,000 cluster bombs during the war that released 346 million submunitions, according to military records. About 20 percent or more failed to detonate on impact for a variety of reasons, including poor quality control during production. In some cases, pilots under fire dropped them at such a high speed and low altitude that the bomblets did not arm properly before hitting the ground.

In 2017, President Trump reversed a 2008 policy that would have eliminated cluster munitions from the Pentagon’s arsenal. Then in 2020, his administration made anti-personnel land mines more widely available for U.S. forces to use in combat, undoing roughly 25 years of U.S. policy that had limited the use of those mines to the Korean Peninsula.

In June 2022, the Biden administration reversed the anti-personnel mine decision, but provided them to Ukraine a year and a half later despite its own policy.

Trump’s new tariffs would hit metals imports

President Trump was poised to move forward with sweeping 25 percent tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum that are likely to rankle Canada and Mexico, which supply the bulk of U.S. metal imports.

The two countries could also incite retaliation on U.S. exports. Trump said on Sunday that he would make a formal announcement about the tariffs on Monday.

His decision took leaders in Canada and Mexico by surprise. A North American trade war had been averted at the last moment last month when deals were reached with Trump for a 30-day postponement of tariffs.

My colleague Ana Swanson, who covers trade, said the new tariffs “will probably spark new trade fights with American allies.”

“The interesting thing about steel and aluminum tariffs is they do really help domestic metal makers,” she said. “But there’s a big trade-off because they increase costs for other businesses that use steel and aluminum. And there a lot of those — makers of cars, machinery, planes and food packaging come to mind.”

Context: Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on metals in his first term. Studies showed that the move hurt the broader economy as prices went up for so many other industries.

China: Trump’s metal tariffs might primarily be aimed at allies of the U.S., but they’re really intended to hit China, which dominates the global steel and aluminum industry.

More on Trump

Hamas won’t free hostages ‘until further notice’

Hamas has indefinitely postponed the release of Israeli hostages who were set to be freed this weekend, a spokesman said yesterday. He accused Israel of several violations of the cease-fire agreement.

The move threatens to derail a six-week truce and prospects for a lasting end to the war. The announcement from Hamas came after Fox News published a clip of an interview in which President Trump said Palestinians would not be allowed to return to Gaza under his plan to relocate the entire population.

What’s next: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel planned to hold a meeting of his security cabinet after consulting with his top advisers. Mediators from Qatar and Egypt could work with Israeli and Hamas negotiators to find a resolution.

Europe wants to be a top contender in the A.I. race

Top tech executives, academic experts and government leaders gathered yesterday in Paris for a two-day A.I. summit. Europe wants to keep up with the U.S. and China in the A.I. race, but investors worry that the continent has too much red tape, and that its taxes are too high.

It was a fear that President Emmanuel Macron of France seemed eager to push past. “If we regulate before we innovate, we won’t have any innovation of our own,” he said.

China: Many people in the country see the success of the start-up DeepSeek as a victory for domestic education, proof that it equals or has surpassed that of the U.S.

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Many Lebanese citizens have emigrated during times of conflict or disaster. But after looking from afar at images of their homeland battered by war with Israel, some in this influential diaspora — estimated at nearly three times the size of the country’s population of 5.7 million — have begun trickling back, hoping to offer support. The challenges are huge.

Lives lived: Gyalo Thondup, the eldest brother of the Dalai Lama and a prominent figure in Tibet, died at 97.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Settling a score at the Super Bowl halftime show

Whether Kendrick Lamar would perform his Grammy-winning Drake diss “Not Like Us” at the Super Bowl halftime show dominated conversations leading up to the event. The song has become Lamar’s signature hit.

During his feud with Drake, Lamar has appeared to take on the dismantling of his rival as necessary homework. But when he finally launched into “Not Like Us” on Sunday, he did so with the grin of a man who was having the time of his life at the expense of an enemy. It was quite a spectacle — perhaps the peak of any rap battle ever, my colleague Jon Caramanica writes.

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Hamas postponed the release of more hostages

Hamas has indefinitely delayed the release of Israeli hostages who were set to be freed this weekend, a spokesman for the militants said. The move threatens to derail the six-week truce in Gaza that began last month. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel planned to meet with his security cabinet this morning, a top official said.

President Trump said the cease-fire agreement should be canceled if Hamas didn’t release all remaining Israeli hostages by noon on Saturday — in which case, he said, “all hell is going to break out.” But he acknowledged that the choice was Israel’s to make.

Both Hamas and Israel have accused each other of violating the agreement. In Israel, the gaunt condition of some hostages, and their humiliating handovers, provoked widespread anger. Hamas says Israel has delayed the return of displaced Palestinians, blocked the delivery of some humanitarian aid and opened fire on civilians.

Context: Hamas’s statement about the hostages came after Fox News published a clip in which Trump said Palestinians would not be allowed to return to Gaza under his plan to move them out and develop the strip. Trump said he could cut aid to Jordan and Egypt if they refused to permanently take in most Gazans.

Next steps: A key point of tension between Israel and Hamas is the second phase of the cease-fire deal, which calls for a permanent end to the fighting, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the release of more hostages and Palestinian prisoners. Netanyahu has suggested that he won’t pursue the second phase if it means an end to the war.

News from the region:

Trump put tariffs on steel and aluminum imports

President Trump signed official proclamations last night that would impose a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum from all countries.

The same policy pleased domestic metal makers in Trump’s first term, but it hurt other American industries and ignited trade wars on several fronts. The tariffs are likely to rankle allies like Canada and Mexico, which supply the bulk of U.S. metal imports, and they could incite retaliatory tariffs, as they did before.

Analysis: The new tariffs “will probably spark new trade fights with American allies,” said my colleague Ana Swanson, who covers trade. “Steel and aluminum tariffs do really help domestic metal makers,” she added. “But there’s a big trade-off, because they increase costs for other businesses,” including makers of cars, machinery, planes and food packaging.

Elon Musk leads bid to buy OpenAI

A group of investors led by Elon Musk has made a $97.4 billion bid to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, insiders said, escalating a tussle for control of the company between the world’s richest man and OpenAI’s chief executive, Sam Altman.

OpenAI declined to comment on the bid, though Altman posted a response on X, saying, “No thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.” Musk replied, “Swindler.”

Europe: Executives, researchers and government leaders are gathering in Paris for a two-day A.I. summit. Europe wants to keep up with the U.S. and China in the A.I. race, but investors worry about the effects of high taxes and red tape. (In response, the French president has pitched lighter regulation.)

China: Many people in the country see the success of the A.I. start-up DeepSeek as a victory for domestic education, proof that it equals or has surpassed that of the U.S.

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Many Lebanese citizens have emigrated during times of conflict or disaster. But after looking from afar at images of their battered homeland, some people in this influential diaspora — estimated at nearly three times the size of Lebanon’s population of 5.7 million — have begun trickling back, hoping to offer support.

Lives lived: Gyalo Thondup, the eldest brother of the Dalai Lama and a prominent figure in Tibet, died at 97.

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Recapping New York Fashion Week

Fashion Week comes to an end in New York City today. We spoke to Vanessa Friedman, The Times’s chief fashion critic, about what she saw on, and off, the runway.

What defined this year’s NYFW?

The themes were, predictably, shaped by the current political moment; designers said they had started making their collections in one reality, and after the election, the looks started to change. That meant wrestling with questions of femininity — what does that look like when traditional gender definitions are resurgent? — as well as whether to wear your values on your sleeve (or your runway).

In terms of trends, there were a lot of over-the-knee boots and a lot of fringing. A more polished, tailored kind of sportswear is also staging a return. People want to feel pulled together when so much of life seems out of their control.

What got people talking?

The big news in New York was the return of Calvin Klein to the runway after almost seven years away. Klein defined a certain kind of American minimalism and suiting for decades; the brand is hoping to reclaim that territory and redefine American style under new designer Veronica Leoni. Her show was pretty loyal to the heritage — too loyal, really — but it did feel like the beginning of a new era.

What are you anticipating from the rest of the season?

The big shows will take place in Paris, where some major brands are now under the direction of new designers: Sarah Burton at Givenchy, and Haider Ackermann at Tom Ford. There will be a lot of front-row gossip in Milan about who will get the top job at Gucci, since they fired their designer last week. I am also curious as to whether the corset, which was, somewhat disturbingly, the ubiquitous garment during the couture shows in January, makes a reappearance during ready-to-wear.

As the war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah intensified last September, Abed Al Kadiri sat glued to the television in the art studio where he was working in Kuwait.

Mr. Al Kadiri watched as Beirut, the Lebanese capital and city of his childhood, was ravaged by Israeli bombardments. He was distraught about what members of his family, including his mother and 13-year-old son, along with his friends, were enduring there. He began having nightmares and panic attacks and was unable to sleep.

Determined to support his family and help his country rebuild, Mr. Al Kadiri decided to book a ticket home.

“Lebanon was going into an apocalyptic phase,” Mr. Al Kadiri, 40, said on a recent morning in the outskirts of Beirut. “Going back was the only best option.”

Lebanon’s large and influential diaspora — estimated at nearly three times the size of the country’s population of 5.7 million — has been trickling back, hoping to offer physical and financial support for a country devastated by one of the bloodiest wars in decades in the Mediterranean nation.

The challenges are huge. The returnees are coming back to a shattered country whose economy has been in crisis for years and which has long been plagued by sectarian tensions, political bickering and foreign interference. Lebanon’s trajectory remains deeply uncertain after a conflict that is likely to shift the balance of power inside the country and across the Middle East.

But many of the returnees say they felt that they had no choice, even as a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah signed in November remains delicate.

“I felt like our country was calling us, that our physical presence was important,” said Zeina Kays, 48, a communications consultant who left Lebanon in 2004 for Doha, Qatar, where she has lived and worked on and off since. She returned to Lebanon in October.

In Doha, she said, she watched on television as families displaced from Beirut arrived in other cities and towns across Lebanon with what remained of their belongings. As the deaths and the destruction escalated, she had “an emotional urge” to return and help, she said.

Ms. Kays, 48, is now back for good, she says, in the Koura area, about 30 miles north of Beirut, where she and her husband own a home. ⁠There, with the help of friends and family, she spearheaded a campaign to secure supplies — blankets, medicine, food, utensils and clothes — for dozens of displaced families in her hometown and nearby villages.

“This war demonstrated the patriotism, solidarity and unity that exists among all Lebanese people, regardless of their region or religion,” she said in an interview in Batroun, a coastal city that is also home to the Lebanese Diaspora Village, a cultural and touristic project aimed at connecting overseas Lebanese to their homeland.

“Lebanon deserves a brighter vision and a better future,” Ms. Kays said.

War came again to Lebanon after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel. Hezbollah began targeting Israel in solidarity with Hamas, setting off a series of tit-for-tat attacks across the Israeli-Lebanese border. The conflict, which escalated in late September, killed and injured thousands of people and displaced an estimated 1.3 million, according to Lebanese officials and the United Nations.

Entire villages and neighborhoods, especially in the south, were pummeled as Israel conducted intense air raids. Hezbollah, a dominant political and military force that is backed by Iran, was severely weakened as its top leaders were assassinated and its ally in neighboring Syria, Bashar al-Assad, was ousted.

The war exacerbated the mounting problems already facing Lebanon.

The economic disarray, beginning in 2019 and aggravated by pandemic lockdowns, was ranked by the World Bank in 2021 as among the worst national financial crises since the mid-19th century. Anger over corruption led to huge antigovernment protests. Then, an explosion at the Beirut port in 2020 destroyed parts of the capital and killed hundreds. For two years, Lebanon had a caretaker government, and a new president and prime minister were chosen only in January.

“These last few years in Lebanon were really like a roller coaster,” said Mr. Al Kadiri, the artist, who left Beirut for a second time after the 2020 port explosion.

He first departed Lebanon for Kuwait during the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. But he returned in 2014, establishing a studio and reconnecting with the city. He decided to leave again when the port blast destroyed a gallery where he had been exhibiting his work. After starting an initiative titled “Today, I Would Like to be a Tree” in Beirut to help rebuild homes shattered by the explosion, he went to Paris, hoping to find work in the arts there to support his family.

He had just arrived in Kuwait from Paris to curate a show when the latest war escalated.

Now he is back in Beirut again. “The future can be dark, concerning and scary, but we are here,” he said. “Even if we leave, we still come back.”

Lebanese started leaving their homeland in waves starting in the late 19th century, when it was under the Ottoman Empire, and continued to emigrate during French rule and after independence in the 1940s. They fled sectarian divisions, economic crises, famine during World War I, politically motivated killings and a civil war from 1975 to 1990.

In countries like Australia, Brazil, Nigeria and the United States, they and their descendants have established new lives. Among their numbers are the international lawyer Amal Clooney and the trader-turned-philosopher Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

Many also kept a close relationship with home: In 2023, the diaspora sent some $6 billion in remittances, or about 27.5 percent of Lebanon’s gross domestic product, according to the World Bank.

As the war unfolded last year, the Lebanese diaspora mobilized to raise money and emergency aid.

Many say they are watching how the new government plans to rebuild the economy, enforce the delicate truce between Israel and Hezbollah, and stabilize the nation before they decide whether to return.

Another consideration, said Konrad Kanaan, a 31-year-old lawyer based in France who was visiting Beirut recently, is the shifting geopolitics of the region and how they could affect Lebanon’s future.

At a recent dinner at Mr. Kanaan’s brother’s home in the Achrafieh neighborhood in Beirut, an animated conversation ensued about Syria and Gaza. One family member twice quoted the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and said she was eager to understand what his vision for a “new Middle East” would look like. Another spoke about the agony and emotional resentment brewed by recurring wars.

They all acknowledged that none of them had a clear idea of the future.

“I don’t think resilience is something very positive,” Mr. Kanaan said of an attribute cited by many Lebanese. “It is draining.”

Many Lebanese also wonder what will happen to Hezbollah, how the group’s relationship with Iran will develop and whether the militants will withdraw from southern Lebanon as agreed in the truce with Israel. While anger with Israel is high among Lebanese, many have openly criticized Hezbollah for attacking Israel at Iran’s behest.

“We love our homeland, but it was taken from us by the Iranians,” said Rabie Kanaan, a 35-year-old business developer from Australia who was visiting family in Beirut (and is no relation of Mr. Kanaan the lawyer). Rabie Kanaan is originally from Tibnin, a town in southern Lebanon that was pounded by Israeli airstrikes during the war. His family’s home was in ruins, he said, and he is now unable to bring his 8-year-old daughter to visit the verdant hills where he grew up.

“She’s always asking, ‘Dad, why are they always fighting in our country?’” he said. He tried to counter that notion, he added, telling her, “As ordinary people, we just aim for peace.”

Sarah Chaayto contributed reporting from Beirut.