President Donald Trump indicated that he spoke with the king of Jordan on Saturday about potentially relocating the more than 1 million Palestinians still living in Gaza to other Arab countries and urged that “something has to happen” as the strip is “literally a demolition site right now.”
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One after a Las Vegas rally earlier in the day, Trump detailed his conversation with Jordan’s Abdullah II, saying he asked him to take in more Palestinians.
“I said to him that 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,” Trump said.
Trump also said he wanted Egypt to take in more Palestinians as well, and that he would speak to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi about it on Sunday. He then floated the idea of “just clean[ing] out” the whole strip.
“You’re talking about a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” Trump said, adding, “I don’t know, something has to happen, but it’s literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything’s demolished and people are dying there, so I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different location where I think they could maybe live in peace for a change.”
Trump was not firm on whether such a housing plan would be temporary or over a longer time span, saying it could be both.
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Israel’s war against Hamas has devastated the Gaza Strip and has led to the displacement of nearly the entire population. The death toll is believed to be around 45,000 people, militants and civilians combined.
Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire deal that began the day before Trump’s inauguration. It includes the release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for 33 Israeli hostages that Hamas took during its Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack.
