Trump calls on Arab nations to take in more Gazans

(JND) U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday called on Arab nations, singling out Egypt and Jordan, to take in more Palestinians from Gaza to “clean out” the enclave, which suffered extensive damage during the 15-month Israel-Hamas War.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said, “I’d like Egypt to take people,” according to the Associated Press. “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.’”

“Something has to happen. It’s literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything’s demolished, and people are dying there,” he continued.

“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.”

The relocation “could be temporary or long term,” he added, according to AP.

He praised Jordan’s previous acceptance of Palestinian refugees and expressed interest in expanding this approach. “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,” Trump said he had told Jordan’s King Abdullah II during a recent conversation.

During the press conference, Trump also disclosed that he had lifted restrictions on sending 2,000-pound bombs to Israel. “We released them today,” he said, according to the report. When asked why, he replied: “Because they bought them.”

The decision to resume the shipments marks a departure from his predecessor’s policy. President Joe Biden had suspended the delivery of these weapons in May to discourage an Israeli offensive in Rafah. “Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden told CNN in May.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has not responded to Trump’s comments. However, senior Israeli government officials told journalist Amit Segal of Channel 12 News that the U.S. president’s remarks were “not a slip of the tongue but part of a much broader move than it seems,” coordinated with Jerusalem.

Likud lawmaker on Sunday Tally Gotliv called Trump’s proposal a “great idea.”

“He has all my respect and clearly understands very well that the terror organizations in Gaza are in control of the civilian population, that wants at the end of the day, I believe, to go to another place and live a proper life,” she told JNS.

“Whenever the population is surrounded by terror organizations, the terrorists will reign and rule and will grow and bring only chaos over the Middle East,” she said. “As such, I hope this proposition will become a reality and that there will be voluntary migration of Gazans as a differentiation from Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad,” she continued.

Trump, she said, “understands who the enemy is, how to speak with the enemy and how to protect the civilian population that wants a normal life.”

Opposition politician Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose Otzma Yehudit Party quit the government last week in protest against the ceasefire with Hamas, praised Trump’s proposal to “transfer residents from Gaza to Jordan and Egypt.”

“One of our demands from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to encourage voluntary emigration,” Ben-Gvir said on Sunday morning. “When the president of the biggest superpower, Trump, raises the idea himself, it would be wise for the Israeli government to implement it.”

“Encourage emigration now!” the right-wing politician concluded.

Yesh Atid lawmaker Debbie Biton told JNS on Sunday, “We are not focused on encouraging migration [from Gaza] but rather on bringing the hostages home.”

She added that her party, which leads the opposition, is intent on “rehabilitating the ‘Gaza Envelope’ and the northern region, reducing the burden on [IDF] reservists and fostering international partnerships to strengthen security.”

However, Jordan and Egypt have repeatedly made clear that they will not accept any Palestinian civilians from the Gaza Strip, declaring it a “red line.”

“There will be no refugees in Jordan and no refugees in Egypt,” Jordan’s King Abdullah II declared following a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in October 2023.

“That is a red line, because I think that is a plan by certain of the usual suspects to try and create de facto issues on the ground,” he added.

Egyptian sources have also dismissed proposals to allow Gazans to flee, with one saying they would not allow them to leave so as to protect “the right of Palestinians to hold on to their cause and their land.”