Trump floats plan to âjust clean outâ Gaza, wants Egypt and Jordan to take Palestinians

MIAMI, Jan 26 â US President Donald Trump floated a plan yesterday to âjust clean outâ Gaza, and said he wants Egypt and Jordan to take Palestinians from the territory in a bid to create Middle East peace.
Describing Gaza as a âdemolition siteâ after the Israel-Hamas war, Trump said he had spoken to Jordanâs King Abdullah II about the issue and expected to talk to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi today.
âIâd like Egypt to take people. And Iâd like Jordan to take people,â Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
âYouâre talking about probably a million and half people, and we just clean out that whole thing. You know, over the centuries itâs had many, many conflicts that site. And I donât know, something has to happen.â
The vast majority of Gazaâs 2.4 million people have been displaced, often multiple times, by the war that began with Hamasâs attack on southern Israel on Oct 7, 2023.
Trump said moving Gazaâs inhabitants could be âtemporarily or could be long term.â
âItâs literally a demolition site right now, almost everything is demolished and people are dying there,â added Trump.
âSo Iâd rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change.â
A fragile truce and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas â which was signed on the last day of former US president Joe Bidenâs administration but which Trump has claimed credit for â has entered its second week.
Bomb shipment released
Trumpâs new administration has promised âunwavering support" for Israel, without yet laying out details of its Middle East policy.
Trump confirmed yesterday that he had ordered the Pentagon to release a shipment of 2,000-lb bombs for Israel which was blocked by his predecessor Biden.
âWe released them. We released them today,â Trump said. âThey paid for them and theyâve been waiting for them for a long time.â
Israelâs retaliatory offensive has left much of the Palestinian territory in ruins, with infrastructure destroyed, and the United Nations estimates reconstruction will take many years.
In October during his presidential campaign, former real estate developer Trump said that war-torn Gaza could be âbetter than Monacoâ if it was ârebuilt the right way.â
Trumpâs son-in-law and former White House employee Jared Kushner suggested in February that Israel empty Gaza of civilians to unlock the potential of its âwaterfront property.â
For Palestinians, any attempt to move them from Gaza would evoke dark historical memories of what the Arab world calls the âNakbaâ or catastrophe â the mass displacement of Palestinians during Israelâs creation 75 years ago.
Israel has denied having any plans to force Gazans to move.
But some extreme-right members of the Israeli government have publicly supported the idea of Gazans leaving the Palestinian territory en masse. â AFP
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