‘The place has been hell’: Trump says Egypt, Jordan will take in Palestinians
Donald Trump hoped the alternate site would be “really nice,” ensuring that Palestinians wouldn’t worry about returning after Gaza’s reconstruction.
US president Donald Trump said that Egypt and Jordan would take in Palestinians from Gaza, dismissing their clear opposition to accepting people from the conflict-hit region.
Sitting alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump said, “They say they’re not going to accept — I say they will.”
It was his first meeting with a foreign leader at the White House since returning to office. He said “really rich” nations would provide the land, and several areas could be developed to permanently house Palestinians.
“I think all of them will be resettled in places where they can have a beautiful life,” Trump said, adding that refugees would no longer have to fear for their lives.
The US president said he hoped the alternate site would be “really nice,” ensuring that Palestinians wouldn’t worry about returning after Gaza’s reconstruction.
“Why would they want to return? The place has been hell,” said Trump
Trump’s meeting with Netanyahu comes at a critical time, as negotiators work on the next phase of a deal that could lead to an end to the war in Gaza.
Trump has often said he wants to see the Gaza Strip cleared after Israel’s intense military campaign. Much of the area is destroyed following Israel’s 15-month war in response to the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, which is now in a six-week ceasefire.
Egypt, Jordan, the Arab League, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, and the Palestinian Authority have all rejected Trump’s proposal. When asked about Jordan’s refusal, Trump pointed to Venezuela, which recently agreed to take back deportees from the US after refusing for a year.
“Look, the Gaza thing has not worked,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office earlier in the day. “I think they should get a good, fresh, beautiful piece of land, and we get some people to put up the money to build it and make it nice and make it habitable, and enjoyable, somewhere.”
“I don’t know how they can want to stay,” Trump said. “It’s a demolition site. It’s a pure demolition site.”
Israel and Hamas remain deeply divided on key issues. Netanyahu has vowed to achieve complete victory over Hamas, which is designated a terrorist group by the US, and to secure the return of all hostages taken during the group's assault on Israel that sparked the war.
Some right-wing members of Netanyahu’s coalition have criticised the deal and pressured him to resume the conflict.
Hamas has said it will not release Israeli hostages in the second stage of the ceasefire unless Netanyahu agrees to end the war and withdraw Israeli forces from the Gaza territory under its control.
Trump has proposed unconventional solutions to end the conflict. While being vocal in his support for Israel, the US president has also promised to bring the conflict to an end and took credit for the deal, which was reached in the final days of his successor Joe Biden’s presidency.
“They will never give me a Nobel peace prize,” Trump said. “I deserve it but they will never give it.”
With Bloomberg inputs
