Trump says he is pressing Jordan, Egypt to take in Palestinians from Gaza
The US president has also floated a plan to ‘just clean out’ the territory.
President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would like to see Jordan, Egypt and other Arab nations increase the number of Palestinian refugees they are accepting from the Gaza Strip.
Mr Trump also floated potentially moving out enough of the population to “just clean out” the war-torn area to create a virtual clean slate.
During a 20-minute question-and-answer session with reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday, Mr Trump said he discussed his vision on a call earlier in the day with King Abdullah II of Jordan and would speak on Sunday with president Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt.
“You’re talking about, probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing and say, ‘You know it’s, over.’”
Speaking about the effects of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, Mr Trump said he complimented Jordan for having successfully accepted Palestinian refugees and that he told the king: “I’d love for you to take on more, cause I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now, and it’s a mess. It’s a real mess.”
He said of such a mass movement of Palestinians, “it could be temporary or long term”, adding that the area of the world that encompasses Gaza, “over centuries” has “had many, many conflicts”.
“But it’s literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything’s demolished, and people are dying there.”
He added: “So, I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations, and build housing in a different location, where they can maybe live in peace for a change.”
Hamas and the Palestinian Authority condemned the idea.
Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, told journalists that his country’s rejection of the proposed transfer of Palestinians was “firm and unwavering”.
The temporary or long-term transfer of Palestinians “risks expanding the conflict in the region and undermines prospects of peace and coexistence among its people,” Egypt’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
There was no immediate comment from Israel.
Mr Trump has offered non-traditional views on the future of Gaza in the past. He suggested after he was inaugurated on Monday that Gaza has “really got to be rebuilt in a different way”.
The new president added then: ”Gaza is interesting. It’s a phenomenal location, on the sea. The best weather, you know, everything is good. It’s like, some beautiful things could be done with it, but it’s very interesting.”
His resuming delivery of large bombs, meanwhile, is a break with then-president Joe Biden, who halted their delivery in May as part of an effort to keep Israel from launching an all-out assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
A month later, Israel did take control of the city, but after the vast majority of the one million civilians that had been living or sheltering in Rafah had fled.
“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centres,” Mr Biden told CNN in May when he held up the weapons.
“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah … I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, that deal with that problem.”
The Biden pause had also held up 1,700 500-pound bombs that had been packaged in the same shipment to Israel, but weeks later those bombs were delivered.
Mr Trump’s action comes as he has celebrated the first phase of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel that has paused the fighting and seen the release of some hostages held by Hamas in Gaza in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Negotiations have yet to begin in earnest on the more difficult second phase of the deal that would eventually see the release of all hostages held by Hamas and an enduring halt to the fighting.
The Israeli government has threatened to resume its war against Hamas — which launched a massive assault against Israel on October 7, 2023 — if the remaining hostages are not released.
