Gaza war: Trump wants Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians
2025-01-26
Category: news

US President Donald Trump has said he wants Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians from Gaza, which he described as a "demolition site".In a phone call this weekend, Mr Trump said he had told Jordan's King Abdullah: "I'd love you to take on more, because I'm looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now and it's a mess, it's a real mess." He said he planned to make a similar request to Egypt's president on Sunday.The move "could be temporary" or "could be long-term", he said.Hamas has vowed to oppose any such action, and the comments will likely outrage Palestinians in Gaza, who see the territory as their ancestral home.
"Our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip endured death and destruction for 15 months… without leaving their land. Therefore, they will not accept any offers or solutions, even if they appear to be good intentions under the title of reconstruction, as announced by US President Trump's proposals," Bassem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, told the BBC."Our people, just as they have thwarted all plans for displacement and an alternative homeland over the decades, will also thwart such projects," he added.Most of Gaza's two million residents have been displaced in the 15 months of war with Israel, which has flattened much of Gaza's infrastructure.
The United Nations has previously estimated that 60% of structures across Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, and it could take decades to rebuild.BBC Verify: How 15 months of war have devastated GazaHistory of the conflict between Israel and the PalestiniansMr Trump made his comments while speaking to reporters on board the Air Force One."You're talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing," he said."Almost everything is demolished and people are dying there. So I'd rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where maybe they can live in peace for a change."Mr Trump did not give further details of the proposal, and the subject was not referenced in the White House's official read out of the call.
Asked about Mr Trump's comments, Abu Yahya Rashid, a man displaced in the southern city of Khan Younis said:"We are the ones who decide our fate and what we want. This land is ours and the property of our ancestors throughout history. We will not leave it except as corpses."Decades of US foreign policy has committed to the creation of a Palestinian state, with Gaza as a key part. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects this.The US has previously said that it opposes any forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza or the occupied West Bank, with then Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying last year: "They cannot, they must not, be pressed to leave Gaza."More than two million Palestinian refugees, most of whom have been granted citizenship, live in Jordan, according to the United Nations. They are descendants of some of the approximately 750,000 Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes in the conflicts surrounding the formation of Israel.Thousands of Palestinians have fled to Egypt since the war with Israel began, but they are not recognised there as refugees.In October 2023, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he rejected any forced displacement of Palestinians into the Sinai peninsula, and that the only solution was an independent state for Palestinians.
Some on Israel's far-right want to return to Gaza and establish settlements there. Israel ordered a unilateral pull out in 2005, with 21 settlements dismantled and about 9,000 settlers evacuated by the army.The far-right former national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said he commended Mr Trump "for the initiative to transfer residents from Gaza to Jordan and Egypt.""One of our demands from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to promote voluntary emigration," he wrote on X.Mr Trump's comments came as displaced people were delayed from returning to their homes in northern Gaza after Israel accused Hamas of breaching the terms of a ceasefire deal."There is nothing there - there is no life, everything is demolished. But still to return to your land, to your home is a big joy," one man anxiously waiting told the BBC.In separate comments on Air Force One, Mr Trump said he had ended former President Joe Biden's hold on the supply of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel."They paid for them and they've been waiting for them for a long time," he told reporters on Air Force One.The US is by far the biggest supplier of arms to Israel, having helped it build one of the most technologically sophisticated militaries in the world.But the war in Gaza led to renewed calls for the US to reduce or end arms shipments to Israel, because of the level of destruction caused by US weapons in the territory. 