Doral, FL — On Sunday, President Trump’s demand for Egypt and Jordan to accept significant numbers of Palestinian refugees from beleaguered Gaza fell short with their governments, perplexing a key congressional friend in Washington.
The fighting that erupted in the region after governing Hamas invaded Israel in October 2023 has been halted by a tenuous ceasefire, but the Israeli military onslaught has rendered the majority of Gaza’s people homeless. Mr. Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One on Saturday that removing 1.5 million people from Gaza may mean “we just clean out the whole thing.”
Mr. Trump repeated what he told Jordan’s King Abdullah during a call earlier Saturday: “I said to him, ‘I’d love for you to take on more because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now, and it’s a mess.'”
He said he made a similar pitch to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi during a conversation on Sunday at Trump’s Doral resort in Florida. Mr. Trump stated, “I’d like Egypt and Jordan to take people.”
Hamas, Egypt and Jordan reject Trump’s Gaza suggestion
On Monday, Israeli forces permitted hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to begin returning to their cities and villages in Gaza’s ravaged northern half, igniting a mass exodus perceived as a strong rejection of the concept of mass deportation from Gaza.
In a statement posted online Monday, spokesman Abdul Latif al-Qanou of the U.S.- and Israel-designated terrorist group Hamas, which has ruled over Gaza for nearly two decades, said the scenes of people returning in large numbers to the north “represent another failure of the occupation in achieving the goals of the war of extermination and destruction, and a message of defiance to any new attempt to displace them.”
“The steadfastness of our people on their land and their return from the south of the Gaza Strip to its north represents the end of the Zionist dream of displacing them and liquidating their just cause,” according to al-Qanou.
Egypt and Jordan, along with the Palestinians, are concerned that Israel will never allow the Palestinians to return to Gaza if they are forced to leave. Egypt and Jordan both have perennially suffering economies, and their governments, as well as those of other Arab states, are concerned about the massive instability of their own countries and the region that any such inflow of refugees would cause.
Jordan is already home to almost 2 million Palestinian refugees. Egypt has expressed concerns about the security consequences of relocating a significant number of Palestinians to the Sinai Peninsula, which borders Gaza.
Mr. Trump said that the majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people may be resettled temporarily or permanently.
Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, said Sunday that his country’s resistance to Trump’s proposals was “firm and unwavering.”
Some Israeli officials had proposed the notion early in the fight.
According to Egypt’s foreign minister, the temporary or long-term relocation of Palestinians “risks expanding the conflict in the region.”
In the statement, the ministry underlined “Egypt’s commitment to the principles and parameters of a political solution to the Palestinian issue,” emphasizing that it remains the fundamental issue in the Middle East. The region’s instability stems from the delay in resolving it, ending the occupation, and restoring the Palestinian people’s stolen rights.
“on this context, Egypt reiterates its unwavering support for the Palestinian people’s steadfastness on their land and adherence to their rightful rights on their land and homeland, as well as the principles of international law and international humanitarian law. It also emphasizes its opposition to any infringement on those inalienable rights, whether through settlement activities, annexation of land, eviction of rightful owners through displacement, or encouraging the transfer or uprooting of Palestinians from their land, temporarily or permanently.”
Mr. Trump does wield some power over Jordan, a debt-ridden but strategically crucial US ally that is highly reliant on foreign aid. Historically, the United States has been the single greatest source of that aid, with the State Department providing more than $1.6 billion in 2023 alone. Much of this comes in the form of direct funding support and assistance to Jordan’s security forces.
Jordan, in turn, has been an important regional ally for the United States in its efforts to maintain regional stability. Jordan hosts around 3,000 US troops. However, while laying out the provisions of Mr. Trump’s order to suspend foreign aid on his first day in office, incoming Secretary of State Marco Rubio exempted security assistance to Israel and Egypt but not Jordan.
European officials react to Trump’s suggestion
On Monday, Germany’s government also rejected the idea of displacing Palestinians, with a Foreign Ministry spokesperson telling reporters in Berlin that the country shared the view of “the European Union, our Arab partners, the United Nations… that the Palestinian population must not be expelled from Gaza and Gaza must not be permanently occupied or recolonized by Israel.”
In Italy, right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who attended Mr. Trump’s inauguration and has sought to position herself as a liaison between the new US administration and Europe, attempted to downplay the president’s Gaza proposal.
“Trump is right when he says that the reconstruction of Gaza is obviously one of the main challenges we face, and that to succeed, however, a great deal of involvement from the international community is needed,” she told reporters when she was visiting Saudi Arabia. “Mr. Trump’s plan for refugees lacks clarity.” I believe we are more likely to have discussions with regional actors, who should undoubtedly be involved.”
ga”These are certainly very complex matters, but the fact that they are being discussed, even at an informal level with the actors in the region, in my opinion means that we want to work seriously on the issue of the reconstruction of Gaza,” said Italy’s premier.
“I don’t know what he’s talking about,” says Sen. Lindsey Graham
Meanwhile, in the United States, even those Republicans who support Mr. Trump were left scrambling to make sense of his statements.
When asked on CNN’s “State of the Union” what the president meant by the “clean out” phrase, Sen. Lindsey Graham answered, “I really don’t know.” Graham, who is close to Mr. Trump, stated that the plan was not practical.
“The idea that all Palestinians are going to leave and go somewhere else, I don’t see that as being overly practical,” said Graham, a veteran Republican senator from South Carolina. He said Mr. Trump should continue to speak with Middle Eastern leaders, especially Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and UAE authorities.
“I’m not sure what he is talking about. “But go talk to MBS, the UAE, and Egypt,” Graham continued. “What are their plans for the Palestinians?” Do they want everyone to leave?
Trump drops hold on 2,000-pound bomb shipment to Israel
Mr. Trump, an ardent friend of Israel, also announced on Saturday that he had instructed the United States to send Israel a supply of 2,000-pound bombs. Former President Joe Biden had placed restrictions on the specific weapons owing to worries about their impact on Gaza’s civilian population.
Egypt and Jordan have made peace with Israel, but they favor the establishment of a Palestinian state in the occupied West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, which Israel took during the 1967 Mideast War. They believe that the permanent relocation of Gaza’s residents will render the so-called “two-state solution” untenable.
In the Middle East, Mr. Trump appears to be less supportive of a two-state solution than past administrations. Israel’s present government has likewise ruled out the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
In presenting his case for such a major population movement, Mr. Trump claimed that Gaza is “literally a demolition site right now.”
“I’d rather work with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different location,” he added of those displaced in Gaza. “Where they can maybe live in peace for a change.”
