President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he would like Jordan, Egypt and other Arab nations to absorb Palestinian refugees to “clean out” Gaza.
“I’d like Egypt to take people,” Trump said during a 20-minute question-and-answer session with reporters aboard Air Force One. “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.’”
Toward this end, Trump spoke with King Abdullah II of Jordan and planned to speak on Sunday with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt. Trump said he complimented Jordan for having successfully accepted Palestinian refugees and that he told the king, “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.”
He said resettling “could be temporary or long term.”
“Something has to happen,” Trump said. “But it’s literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything’s demolished, and people are dying there.” He added: “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.”
In an interview with Israel365 News, MK Ohad Tal said,
“President Trump is right because Gazans are the only people on earth not allowed to flee a war zone. I believe that the vast majority of Gazans will leave if they are allowed which will solve the core problem for the entire region. We are going to work on this proposal with Trump’s new administration in Washington.”
“We must ask ourselves if we want to solve the Palestinian problem once and for all or continue to fool ourselves by repeating the same mistakes and allow Hamas to control Gaza which will only lead to more cycles of violence.”
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich welcomed the plan of removing Palestinians from Gaza.
“After 76 years during which the majority of Gaza’s population has been forcibly kept in harsh conditions to preserve the aspiration of destroying the State of Israel, the idea of helping them find other places to start new, better lives is an excellent idea,” he said in a statement. “For years, politicians have proposed impractical solutions like dividing the land and establishing a Palestinian state, which endangered the existence and security of the world’s only Jewish state, leading only to bloodshed and suffering for many. Only out-of-the-box thinking and new solutions will bring about peace and security,” he added.
“With God’s help, I will work with the prime minister and the cabinet to develop an operational plan to implement this as soon as possible.”
Relocating Gazans would facilitate the reconstruction of Gaza. The UN estimates that over 90% of residential buildings have been damaged or destroyed. Providing humanitarian aid has been complicated by Hamas which hijacks the aid, reselling it at exorbitant prices to fund its war against Israel.
Regional countries have rejected accepting Palestinian migrants for fear they will radicalize their populations and cause internal strife. Potential host countries are also concerned about being seen as complicit in creating another refugee crisis. Palestinians and anti-Israel groups have also expressed deep reservations about any relocation proposals, fearing they might be permanently prevented from returning to their homeland, paving the way for Jews to be allowed to live in the region as they did before Gaza was ethnically cleansed in 2005.
