Doral, Florida — President Trump’s push to have Egypt and Jordan take in large numbers of Palestinian refugees from besieged Gaza fell flat with those countries’ governments and left a key congressional ally in Washington perplexed on Sunday.
Fighting that broke out in the territory after ruling Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023 is paused due to a fragile ceasefire, but most of Gaza’s population has been left homeless by the Israeli military campaign. Mr. Trump told reporters Saturday aboard Air Force One that moving some 1.5 million people away from Gaza might mean that “we just clean out that whole thing.”
Mr. Trump relayed what he told Jordan’s King Abdullah when the two held a call earlier Saturday: “I said to him, ‘I’d love for you to take on more because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now, and it’s a mess.'” He said he was making a similar appeal to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi during a conversation they were having while Trump was at his Doral resort in Florida on Sunday.
However, both Egypt and Jordan have rejected Trump’s proposal. Jordan’s foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, said Sunday that his country’s opposition to what Trump floated was “firm and unwavering.” Egypt’s foreign ministry issued a statement saying that the temporary or long-term transfer of Palestinians “risks expanding the conflict in the region” and reaffirmed its commitment to the principles and parameters of a political solution to the Palestinian issue, which it said remained the central issue in the Middle East.
European officials also rejected the idea, with a spokesperson for the German government saying that the country shared the view of the European Union, Arab partners, and the United Nations that the Palestinian population must not be expelled from Gaza and Gaza must not be permanently occupied or recolonized by Israel.
Even some Republicans loyal to Mr. Trump were left trying to make sense of his words, with Senator Lindsey Graham saying, “I really don’t know. I don’t see that to be overly practical.” Graham suggested that Trump should keep talking to Middle East leaders, including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and officials in the United Arab Emirates about the Palestinian issue.
The idea of a mass-displacement of Palestinians has been met with skepticism, with many worried about the security implications and the potential for massive destabilization of the region. Egypt and Jordan, which have made peace with Israel but support the creation of a Palestinian state, fear that the permanent displacement of Gaza’s population could make that two-state solution impossible.
In related news, President Trump also announced on Saturday that he had directed the U.S. to release a supply of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, which had been blocked by former President Joe Biden due to concerns about their effects on Gaza’s civilian population. The decision was seen as a move to demonstrate support for Israel’s military operations in Gaza. The U.S. is the single-largest provider of aid to Jordan, with over $1.6 billion in assistance in 2023, but even some of that aid has been put on hold.