Trump wants neighbours to take in Palestinians to 'clean out' Gaza

U.S. President Donald Trump stated that he would like Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians from Gaza. Trump said he had raised the request with King Abdullah of Jordan and planned to do so with the Egyptian president on Sunday. He described Gaza as a "wreck" and stated "there could be a million and a half people, and we just clean it up." He added that the move "could be temporary" and "could be long term."

Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have condemned the proposal. Jordan and Egypt have also rejected the idea. A ceasefire is currently in place in Gaza following a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. The war began with a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of 1,200 people and the abduction of 251 hostages who were taken back to Gaza. The Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza says that more than 47,200 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the Israeli offensive.

In the past 15 months of war, most of Gaza's 2 million residents have been displaced, and much of Gaza's infrastructure has been razed to the ground. The UN previously estimated that 60% of buildings across Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, and reconstruction could take decades. Trump made the comments to reporters on Air Force One. He said: "Almost everything is destroyed and people are dying there. So I would rather work with some of the Arab nations to build housing in different places, maybe they can live a peaceful life there."

Trump did not provide further details of the proposal, and it was not mentioned in the White House's official readouts of calls. It is unclear whether the US president has formally made the request to Egypt, but the Egyptian foreign ministry has rejected any such efforts, "whether through settlements or annexation of land, or through the expulsion of Palestinians from their land, through displacement or encouraging Palestinians to move or uproot from their land, whether temporarily or permanently." Jordan's foreign minister said the kingdom was "unwavering" in its rejection of the displacement of Palestinians.

In Gaza, Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim told the BBC: "Our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip have experienced 15 months of death and destruction... but without leaving their land. So, they will not accept any proposal or solution, even if they come in the name of reconstruction and look like they are in good faith, as declared by US President Trump's proposal." He added: "Our people, as they have foiled all the plans of displacement and alternative homelands over the decades, will also foil such projects." In the West Bank, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas "strongly rejected and condemned any projects aimed at displacing our people from the Gaza Strip."

When asked about Trump's comments, Abu Yehya Rashid, a displaced man in the southern city of Khan Younis, said: "We are the ones who decide our destiny and what we want. This land is ours, the property of our ancestors throughout history. We will not leave it except as corpses." Decades of US foreign policy has been dedicated to the establishment of a Palestinian state with Gaza as a key part of it. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected this option. Donald Trump has long appeared to speak off the cuff, floating ideas that never come to fruition.

However, the idea of encouraging Gazans to move to neighboring countries has long been pushed by hard-right members of Netanyahu's government. Former National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, from the Jewish Power party, said he praised Trump's "initiative to transfer Gaza residents to Jordan and Egypt." He wrote on X: "One of our demands from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to promote voluntary emigration." Current Israeli Finance Minister, the far-right settler Bezalel Smotrich, has also said Palestinians should emigrate to neighboring countries so Jewish settlements can be rebuilt in Gaza.

These remarks have angered Palestinians and will frustrate supporters of the "two-state solution" - the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. Palestinians fear that those around President Trump are pushing him towards a more extreme direction on Middle East policy. This month, Trump's nominee for the next US ambassador to Israel, the evangelical Christian Mike Huckabee, rejected the idea of a Palestinian state outright. He said in a US TV interview: "Palestinians in Gaza had their chance, look what happened there." Gaza has been under Israeli occupation since 1967.

Huckabee's comments contradict six decades of US policy in the Middle East, where Washington has long promoted the concept of a "two-state solution." The US has previously said it opposes any forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza or the occupied West Bank. According to the UN, there are more than 2 million Palestinian refugees living in Jordan, most of whom have been granted citizenship. They are the descendants of around 750,000 Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes in the conflict around the creation of Israel in 1948. Thousands of Palestinians have fled to Egypt since the war with Israel began, but they are not recognized there as refugees.

Some on the Israeli far right want to return to Gaza and establish settlements there. Israel unilaterally withdrew in 2005, dismantling 21 settlements and evacuating around 9,000 settlers by the military. Trump's remarks came as displaced people were delayed from returning to their homes in northern Gaza after Israel accused Hamas of violating the terms of the ceasefire. One anxious man waiting told the BBC: "There is nothing there - no life, everything is destroyed. But still, to return to your land, to your home, is a great joy."

In a separate address on Air Force One, Trump said he had ended former President Joe Biden's restriction on the supply of 2,000lb bombs to Israel. "They paid for it, and they've been waiting for a long time," he told reporters on Air Force One. The US is by far the biggest supplier of weapons to Israel, helping it build one of the most technologically advanced militaries in the world. But the war in Gaza has led to renewed calls for the US to reduce or halt its arms shipments to Israel, as US weapons have caused massive destruction in the region.