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Donald Trump invited Egypt and Jordan to receive the majority of the population, saying that it was time to “clean” the territory in comments that are likely to infuriate Palestinians and Arabs throughout the region.
“I would like Egypt to receive people. And I would like Jordan to take people, “US president told reporters on Air Force One aircraft. “You’re talking about a million and a half people, and we just clean the whole thing.”
Trump’s proposal would reverse the decades of American policy of promoting a two -state solution based on the establishment of the Palestinian state with Israel, in Gaza and parts of the occupied West Coast.
Trump He said he had already talked about his proposal about the relocation of the Gaza population with Jordan’s King Abdullah on Saturday and that he would bring it out on Sunday in a telephone interview with Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the Egyptian president.
With an agreement on the interruption of fire between Israel and Hamas entering the second week, Trump said Gaza “is a literal place of demolition, almost everything was demolished and people die there, so I would rather get involved in some Arabic nations and built houses to another place where where where maybe they could live in peace for change. “
Trump said the resettlement of the population “could be temporary or long -term.” Gaza’s pre -war population was 2.2 million.
Amman and Kairo have repeatedly rejected any transfer of Palestinians to their territories since the beginning of the war in October 2023, saying that would mean “liquidation of Palestinian things” at the expense of Israeli neighbors.
Sisi said earlier that receiving the Gaza residents would endanger Egypt’s peace agreement with Israel because of the risk that some of them would continue to fight against the Jewish state within Egyptian borders.
Hellyer, a senior associate of the American Progress Center in Washington, said such a transfer “could be deeply destabilizing, especially for Jordan [which already has a large Palestinian population] And potentially Egypt moves Palestinians to Sinai, for example, because this could mean a conflict between Palestinian militants and Israel. “
Two countries have weak economy and need US support, but their leaders would not want to be seen as companions in what Arab public opinion would be considered another “nakb” or disaster – exodus in neighboring countries of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees in 1948. when the state of Israel was founded.
“It would be angry with Arabs because the historical record is very clear; Every time the Palestinians were forced to leave part of Palestine, they never came back, “Hellyer said. “Gaza emptying from its inhabitants would have no support from the Arabs or even international, because it is a definition of ethnic cleansing.”
Such a move, he added, would undermine the prospect of normalizing the relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia – long at the center of American diplomatic efforts in the region. “That would make it even more likely that an agreement would happen in the near future,” Hellyer said.
Trump’s proposal for Gaza, however, delighted the leaders of the Israeli far right.
Finance Minister Bezalel Declaim described Trump’s proposal as a “wonderful idea”, adding that “only beyond the framework will think about new solutions to bring.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, a former Israeli National Security Minister, who resigned last week in protesting over the agreement on the interruption of fire in Gaza, “praised” Trump for stating the idea.
Trump also confirmed that the Pentagon had abolished the suspension of the £ 2000 bomb delivery, which was imposed by Biden’s administration. “We let them go today and they will have them,” he said. “They paid them and they had been waiting for them for a long time.”
The fire interruption agreement between Israel and Hamas was already under pressure despite the successful Saturday liberation of four Israeli soldiers from prisoners in Gaza and 200 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prison.
Israeli officials said over the weekend that Hamas had violated the agreement reached with US mediation after not released the last civilian hostage woman believed to be alive – Arbel Yehud – before the soldier.
The mediators worked behind the scenes at finding a solution for Yehud’s liberation, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that until the matter was “putting in line”, he would not allow hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to return to the northern Gaza belt, as sought. in agreement.
Israeli interruption of fire with Lebanon also appeared in danger, and at the end of last week, Israel made it clear that he would not fulfill a two -month deadline to withdraw his forces from southern Lebanon on Sunday.
Additional Sarah Dadouch report from Beirut
