4 weeks ago
52
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - US President Donald Trump on Saturday, January 25, 2025, floated a plan to “clean up” Gaza, saying he wants Egypt and Jordan to take Palestinians out of the territory, The New Arab reported.
Describing Gaza as a “place of destruction” following Israel’s war on the enclave, Trump said he had spoken to Jordan’s King Abdullah II about the issue and expected to speak to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday.
“I want Egypt to take people. And I want Jordan to take people,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
“You’re talking about maybe a million and a half people, and we’re just cleaning it all up. You know, over the centuries there’s been a lot of conflict there. And I don’t know, something has to happen.”
Most of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents have been displaced, multiple times, by Israel, with at least 47,283 killed in the past 15 months as a result.
Previously, Steve Witkoff, Trump's Middle East envoy who mediated the Gaza ceasefire, had made a statement that he would relocate Gazans to Indonesia. According to NBC sources who are transition officials, Steve Witkoff said he brought Indonesia's name to relocate 2 million Gazans. They will be temporarily relocated during the rebuilding of the Gaza region.
Trump said that the relocation of Gaza residents could be done "temporarily or for the long term."
"This is really a demolition site right now, almost everything is destroyed and people are dying there," Trump added. "So I would rather engage with some of the Arab countries and build housing in a different location where they might be able to live in peace for a change."
Palestinian groups in Gaza have condemned the idea, with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad calling it "pathetic" and saying that "this proposal is within the framework of encouraging war crimes and crimes against humanity by forcing our people to leave their land."
"As they have thwarted every transfer and alternative homeland plan for decades, our people will also thwart such projects," Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas' political bureau, told AFP.
A fragile ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas - signed on the final day of former US President Joe Biden's administration but claimed by Trump as his own - has entered its second week.
Bomb shipment released
Trump's new administration has pledged "unwavering support" for Israel, without elaborating on its Middle East policy.
Trump confirmed on Saturday that he had ordered the Pentagon to release a shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel that was blocked by his predecessor, Biden.
"We are releasing them. We are releasing them today," Trump said. "They paid for them and they have been waiting for a long time."
Israel's war on Gaza has left much of the Palestinian territory in ruins, with infrastructure in ruins, and the UN has estimated reconstruction will take years.
In October during his presidential campaign, former real estate developer Trump said that war-torn Gaza could be “better than Monaco” if “rebuilt the right way”.
Trump’s son-in-law and former White House aide Jared Kushner suggested in February that Israel should clear Gaza of civilians to unlock the potential of its “waterfront property”.
For Palestinians, any attempt to expel them from Gaza would evoke dark historical memories of what the Arab world calls the “Nakba” or catastrophe – the mass displacement of Palestinians when Israel was founded 75 years ago.
Israel has denied having plans to force Gazans to leave, but some Israeli figures have floated the idea.
Members of the Israeli government have openly supported the idea of Gazans leaving the Palestinian territory en masse.
Israel’s right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has publicly welcomed Trump’s idea, saying in a statement that “the idea of helping them find another place to start a better life is a great idea. After years of glorifying terrorism, they will be able to build a new and good life somewhere else”.
"Only out-of-the-box thinking with new solutions will bring solutions to peace and security.
"I will, with God's help, work with the prime minister and the cabinet to ensure that there is an operational plan to implement this as soon as possible," Smotrich said.
No temporary population transfers
Prominent Palestinian rights activist Ameer Makhoul said Trump’s proposals are part of an American project aimed at “reconstruction and political demographic engineering without camps and attempts to dismantle the Palestinian people’s bonds”.
“In the Palestinian case, there is no temporary population transfer, but rather permanent transfer, as has been the case since 1948 with the refugees and 1967 with the refugees,” Makhoul told Middle East Eye.
Trump’s talk about the location of the Gaza Strip reveals his intention to treat the issue as real estate, as well as an attempt to control the strip and its economic resources, especially natural gas in the Gaza sea.”
Sisi has previously warned against any “forced transfer” of Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt, saying such a move would jeopardize the 1979 peace agreement with Israel.
Jordan, meanwhile, is home to some 2.3 million registered Palestinian refugees, according to the United Nations.
“Egypt and Jordan will not accept Trump’s proposal because it is a politically unacceptable position and poses a threat to their respective national security,” Makhoul said.
The incoming Trump administration has pledged “unwavering support” for Israel but has yet to outline a broader Middle East strategy.
On Saturday, the US president confirmed that he had directed the Pentagon to approve the shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, a shipment previously halted by former President Joe Biden.
"We're releasing them today, and they're going to have them. They've paid for them, and they've been waiting for them for a long time. They've been stored," Trump told reporters.
A single 2,000-pound (907kg) bomb is capable of penetrating solid concrete and metal, causing extensive damage over a wide area.
Editor's Choice: Donald Trump to Sanction Colombia for Refusing to Accept Deported Immigrants from the United States
Click here to get the latest news updates from Tempo on Google News
