By Nandita Bose, Kanishka Singh and Nidal al-Mughrabi
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE/Cairo (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said Jordan and Egypt should take in Palestinians from war-ravaged Gaza, a suggestion rejected by Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that runs the enclave, and apparently rebuffed by the Jordanian foreign minister.
Asked if this was a temporary or long-term solution for Gaza, where Israel’s military assault has caused a dire humanitarian situation and killed tens of thousands, Trump said on Saturday: “Could be either.”
Jordan is already home to several million Palestinians, while tens of thousands live in Egypt. Both countries and other Arab nations reject the idea of Palestinians in Gaza being moved to their countries. Gaza is land that Palestinians would want as part of a future Palestinian state.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has repeatedly called for the return of Jewish settlers to Gaza, welcomed Trump’s call as “an excellent idea” and said he would work to develop a plan to implement it. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected such notions, advocated by Smotrich.
A Hamas official echoed long-standing Palestinian fears about being driven permanently from their homes.
Palestinians “will not accept any offers or solutions, even if (such offers) appear to have good intentions under the guise of reconstruction, as announced in the proposals of U.S. President Trump,” Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, told Reuters.
Another Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, urged Trump not to repeat “failed” ideas tried by his predecessor Joe Biden.
“The people of Gaza have endured death and refused to leave their homeland and they will not leave it regardless of any other reasons,” Abu Zuhri told Reuters.
Jordan also appeared to reject Trump’s suggestion, with its Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi telling reporters that the country’s stance against any displacement of Palestinians from Gaza remains “firm and unwavering”.
Egypt has yet to comment but has said on numerous occasions that it rejects any displacement of Palestinians.
Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the remarks. “Our people will remain steadfast and will not leave their homeland,” said a statement published by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.
Palestinian analyst Ghassan al-Khatib said Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, as well as the Jordanians and Egyptians, would reject Trump’s plan: “I don’t think that there is a place in reality for such an idea.”
‘IT’S A REAL MESS’
Referring to a call he had on Saturday with Jordan’s King Abdullah, Trump told reporters: “I said to him 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. I’d like him to take people.”
He added, “I’d like Egypt to take people,” and said he would speak to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday.
“You’re talking about a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” Trump said.
The population in the Palestinian enclave prior to the start of the Israel-Gaza war was around 2.3 million.
Washington had said last year it opposed the forcible displacement of Palestinians. Rights groups and humanitarian agencies have for months raised concerns over the situation in Gaza, with the war displacing nearly the entire population and leading to a hunger crisis.
Washington has also faced criticism for backing Israel but has maintained support for its ally, saying it is helping Israel defend itself against Iranian-backed militant groups like Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.
“It’s literally a demolition site, 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 they can maybe live in peace for a change,” Trump said on Saturday.
‘NEW AND BETTER LIVES’
Smotrich, who said only “out-of-the-box thinking” could achieve peace, said Trump’s plan would give Palestinians “the opportunity to build new and better lives elsewhere”.
“With God’s help, I will work with the prime minister and cabinet to develop an operational plan to implement this as soon as possible,” he said.
In a post on X, Francesca Albanese, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said: “Ethnic cleansing is anything but an ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking, no matter how one packages it. It is illegal, immoral and irresponsible.”
Most of Gaza’s population has been internally displaced by the war. On Sunday, many of them rejected Trump’s suggestion.
“If he thinks he will forcibly displace the Palestinian people (then) this is impossible, impossible, impossible. The Palestinian people firmly believe that this land is theirs, this soil is their soil,” said Magdy Seidam.
“No matter how much Israel tries to destroy, break, and to show people that it had won, in reality it did not win.”
The current Gaza conflict was triggered on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed more than 47,000 people, according to the Gaza health ministry. The fighting has currently paused amid a fragile ceasefire.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose on Air Force One and Kanishka Singh in WashingtonAdditional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo, Steven Scheer and Maayan Lubell in JerusalemEditing by Tom Hogue, William Maclean, Giles Elgood and Frances Kerry)
