Displaced people walk to cross the Netzarim Corridor from southern Gaza into the north, on Jan. 27, 2025. (By AFP)
Washington, January 28 (RHC)-- U.S. President Donald Trump has once again called for forced relocation of Palestinians from the war-torn Gaza Strip to Egypt and Jordan, despite strong opposition from Cairo and Amman to the plan which has been slammed as "ethnic cleansing."
On Monday evening, when asked about his Saturday’s proposal, the U.S. president told reporters aboard Air Force One that he would “like to get them living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence so much.”
“You know, when you look at the Gaza Strip, it's been hell for so many years. They can live in much better and more comfortable areas. There's always been violence associated with it,” Trump added, stressing that he thinks both Egypt and Jordan would comply with his request to take in Palestinians from the territory.
He added that he had spoken to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi about sending Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt. “I’ve helped him (el-Sisi) a lot and I hope he’ll help us. I think he’ll do it (take in Palestinians) and the king of Jordan will do it too,” Trump noted.
In provocative remarks on Saturday, Trump first floated the idea to “clean out” the blockaded Palestinian territory after more than 15 months of Israel’s heavy bombardment reduced the coastal sliver to a “demolition site.”
He proposed at the time that Gazans should be relocated to neighboring countries Egypt and Jordan, saying that he had already spoken with King Abdullah II of Jordon about potentially building housing and moving more than one million Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring countries. This is while both Cairo and Amman have formally rejected Trump’s proposal, as both countries have historically opposed displacing Palestinians.
Almost all of the Gaza Strip's 2.4 million inhabitants have been internally displaced by the genocidal war Israel waged on the impoverished territory in October 2023. The war claimed the lives of at least 47,306 Palestinians, mostly women and children.
The occupying regime accepted a ceasefire earlier this month after having failed to realize any of its wartime objectives, including enabling the return of the captives, “eliminating” the Gaza resistance, and causing forced displacement of Gaza’s entire population to neighboring Egypt.
On Monday, spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary General, Stéphane Dujarric, said that Egypt and Jordan had clearly opposed the plan to relocate Palestinians from Gaza.
“We saw the comments, and I think we all saw the comments clearly opposing this plan from Egypt, from Jordan, from the Arab League. Of course, we would be against any plan that could, that would lead to the forced displacement of people or could or would lead to any type of ethnic cleansing,” he told reporters, when asked about the Trump’s proposal.
Analysts say any plans for relocating displaced Palestinians will give the Israeli regime the excuse it needs to forcibly expel the population from Gaza, and repopulate the territory with Israeli settlers.
