US President Donald Trump said Saturday he’d like to see Jordan, Egypt and other Arab nations increase the number of Palestinian refugees they are accepting from the Gaza Strip — potentially moving out enough of the population to “just clean out” the war-torn area to create a virtual clean slate.
During a 20-minute question-and-answer session with reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump described Gaza as a “demolition site” after the Israel-Hamas war. He said he had spoken to Jordan’s King Abdullah II about the issue and expected to talk to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi on Sunday.
“I said to [Abdullah] 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,” he recounted.
When asked if this was a temporary or long-term suggestion, Trump said: “Could be either.”
“You’re talking about probably a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing. You know, over the centuries it’s had many, many conflicts that site. And I don’t know, something has to happen,” Trump said.
The population in the Palestinian enclave stands at around 2.3 million.
In October during his presidential campaign, the former real estate developer said that war-torn Gaza could be “better than Monaco” if it was “rebuilt the right way.”
“It’s literally a demolition site right now, almost everything is demolished and people are dying there,” Trump said. “So 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.”
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 the war surrounding Israel’s creation 75 years ago, when several Arab armies attacked the nascent Jewish state.
Israel has denied having any plans to force Gazans to move. But some extreme-right members of the Israeli government have publicly supported the idea of Gazans leaving the Palestinian territory en masse.
Trump has offered non-traditional views on the future of Gaza in the past. He suggested after he was inaugurated last week that Gaza has “really got to be rebuilt differently.”
The returning president added then, ”Gaza is interesting. It’s a phenomenal location, on the sea. The best weather, you know, everything is good. It’s like, some beautiful things could be done with it, but it’s very interesting.”
Trump’s son-in-law and former White House employee Jared Kushner suggested last February that Israel empty Gaza of civilians to unlock the potential of its “waterfront property.”
Trump has celebrated the first phase of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel which began last week, paused the fighting and seen the release of some hostages held by Hamas in Gaza in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Negotiations have yet to begin in earnest on the more difficult second phase of the deal that, if agreed, would eventually see the release of all hostages held by Hamas and an enduring halt to the fighting.