President Trump has suggested that Egypt and Jordan could take thousands of Gazans, as a long-term solution to the humanitarian situation in the territory due to the Israel-Hamas war.
Last year, Washington said it opposed the displacement of Palestinians, but Trump’s remarks, made on Saturday, suggest a potential shift in the US attitude to the conflict and its resolution.
Trump had been speaking with Jordan’s King Abdullah.
“I said to him I’d love you to take on more because I’m looking at the whole Gaza strip right now and it’s a mess, it’s a real mess. I’d like him to take people,” said Trump.
“I’d like Egypt to take people,” Trump continued, adding that he would speak to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday.
“You’re talking about a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” Trump said.
The population of Gaza before the war was around 2.3 million.
Trump described Gaza as a “demolition site,” and said he’d rather “get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they [the Gazans] can maybe live in peace for a change.”
A Hamas representative said the Palestinians “will not accept any offers or solutions, even if (such offers) appear to have good intentions under the guise of reconstruction, as announced in the proposals of U.S. President Trump.”
A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect last week and has led to the release of prisoners and hostages held by both sides.
Around 50,000 people, mostly Palestinians, have been killed during the war, which began in response to the killing of Israeli citizens by Hamas on 7 October 2023.