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Donald Trump has asked Egypt and Jordan to take up most of the Gaza population, saying it was time to “clear” the territory in comments that are likely to angry the Palestinians and Arabs throughout the region.
“I would like Egypt to get people. And I would like Jordan to get people, “the US president told journalists on board Air Force One. “You’re talking about a million and a half people and we just clean all this.”
Trump’s proposal would disrupt decades of American politics promoting two -state settlement based on the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, Gaza and parts of the occupied West Coast.
Trump said he has already discussed his proposal for the relocation of Gaza’s population with King Abdullah of Jordan on Saturday and will bring him Sunday to a call with Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the president of Egypt.
With the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas that entered the second week, Trump said Gaza was “literally a place of destruction, almost everything is destroyed and people are dying there, so I would prefer to get involved with some of the nations Arabic and build dwellings in a different places where they can live in peace for a change. “
Trump said a population transfer “may be temporarily or may be long -term”. The population of the pre -war Gaza was 2.2 million.
Aman and Cairo since the beginning of the war in October 2023 have repeatedly rejected any transfer of the Palestinians to their territories, saying it would constitute the “liquidation of the Palestinian issue” at the expense of Israel’s neighbors.
Sisi has said earlier that taking Gaza would threaten the Egyptian peace agreement with Israel because of the risk of some of them resumed the war against the Jewish state from within the borders of Egypt.
Hamas said on Sunday that the Palestinians “categorically reject any plan to expel or move them from their land” and called on Egypt and Jordan to stand firm against any such effort.
Ha Hellyer, a senior associate at the US Progress Center in Washington, said such a transfer “can be deeply destabilizing especially for Jordan (which already has a large Palestinian population) and potentially for Egypt to relocate Palestinians to Sinai For example, because it may mean conflict between Palestinian militants and Israel. “
Both countries have weak economies and need US support, but their leaders would not want to be seen as collaborators in what Arab public opinion would consider a “Nakba” or second disaster – exodus in countries Neighboring hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees in 1948 when the state of Israel was founded.
“This would angry the Arabs because historical records are very clear; Whenever the Palestinians were forced to leave part of Palestine, they never returned, ”Helleer said. “The emptying of Gaza from its inhabitants would have no support from the Arabs, not even internationally, because it is the definition of ethnic cleansing.”
Such an action, he added, would undermine the prospects of a normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia-a long focus of US diplomatic efforts in the region. “This would make it even more impossible for the deal to happen in the near future,” Helleer said.
Trump’s proposal for Gaza, however, satisfied Israel’s far -right leaders.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich described Trump’s suggestion as a “wonderful idea”, adding that “only thinking outside the box on new solutions will bring … peace and security”.
ITAMAR Ben-Gvir, former Israeli national security minister, who resigned in protest last week for the Gaza ceasefire agreement, “praised” Trump for spreading the idea.
Trump also confirmed that the Pentagon had removed the restriction of the 2000 pound bomb submission in Israel, set by the Biden administration. “We released them today and will have them,” he said. “They have paid for them and waited for them for a long time.”
The ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas was already under tension, despite the successful release of four Israeli female soldiers from captivity in Gaza and 200 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.
Israeli officials said over the weekend that Hamas had violated the US-mediated deal after failing to release the last civilian woman believed to be alive-Arbel Yehud-in front of soldiers.
The mediators were working in the background to find a solution to the release of Jehud, but the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that until the case “put in order” would not allow hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to return to northern gas, as required. in the agreement.
Israel’s ceasefire with Lebanon also appeared in danger, with Israel that made it clear at the end of last week that he would not meet the two -month deadline for withdrawing his forces from South Lebanon on Sunday.
Hundreds of residents of the area were set under Israeli fire as they attempted to return to their border villages. According to the NNA state news agency, 15 people were killed and more than 80 were injured.
Additional reporting by Sarah Dadouch to Beirut
