US President Donald Trump floated the idea of "cleaning out" Gaza and moving its Palestinian inhabitants to Egypt and Jordan, in comments to reporters on Saturday, January 25.
Trump called Gaza a "demolition site" and said that he had spoken to Jordan's King Abdullah II about moving Palestinians out of the territory. "I'd like Egypt to take people. And I'd like Jordan to take people," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, adding that he expected to talk to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday.
There was no immediate reaction from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but a far-right minister welcomed Trump's "great" idea. Hamas and militant allies Islamic Jihad meanwhile reacted with fury and defiance.
For Palestinians, any attempt to move them from Gaza would evoke dark historical memories of what the Arab world calls the "Nakba" or catastrophe – the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israel's creation 75 years ago. Most Gazans are Palestinian refugees or their descendants.
Egypt has previously warned against any "forced displacement" of Palestinians from Gaza into the Sinai desert, which Sisi said could jeopardize the peace treaty Egypt signed with Israel in 1979. Jordan is already home to around 2.3 million registered Palestinian refugees, according to the United Nations.
"You're talking about probably a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing," Trump said of Gaza, whose population is about 2.4 million. "I'd rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change," Trump said, adding that moving Gaza's inhabitants could be "temporarily or could be long term."
Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas's political bureau, told Agence France-Presse that Palestinians would "foil such projects" as they have done to similar plans "for displacement and alternative homelands over the decades." Gazans, he said, "will not accept any offers or solutions, even if their apparent intentions are good under the banner of reconstruction, as proposed by US President Trump."
Islamic Jihad, which fought alongside Hamas in Gaza, called Trump's idea "deplorable" and said that it encourages "war crimes and crimes against humanity by forcing our people to leave their land."
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who opposed the Gaza truce deal, said that Trump's suggestion of "helping them find other places to start a better life is a great idea." He added: "Only out-of-the-box thinking with new solutions will bring a solution of peace and security."
The vast majority of Gaza's people have been displaced, often multiple times, by the Gaza war that began after Hamas's attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. The United Nations says close to 70% of the territory's buildings are damaged or destroyed.