‘Clean out the whole Gaza Strip:’ Trump proposes Egypt, Jordan ‘take’ Palestinians

President Donald Trump told reporters on Saturday that he wants Egypt and Jordan to “take” Palestinians from the Gaza Strip for an indefinite period of time.

“I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now and it’s a real mess,” he told journalists aboard the presidential charter jet Air Force One.

“We just clean out that whole thing,” the US president continued. “I’d like Jordan to take people. I’d like Egypt to take people,” said Trump, stating that such a move “could be temporary, could be long-term.”

The president’s comments echo statements that have come out of Israel since October 7, with numerous Israeli public officials calling for Palestinians in Gaza to be expelled amid news reports that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was pursuing such ends with regional and international capitals. Egypt has repeatedly publicly rebuffed such plans, stating that it would amount to the liquidation of the Palestinian cause. 

Despite the massive destruction that has been wrought on the strip due to Israel’s unrelenting assault over the last 15 months, Palestinians have been waiting to return home in the seven days since a ceasefire went into effect. Per the terms of the ceasefire, Palestinians in Gaza will gradually be allowed to return to the homes from which they have been displaced.

But just one week after a ceasefire agreement finally brought a halt to over 400 days of Israeli bombing, the new US president’s comments on Saturday bring about discussion of the expulsion of Palestinians.

 “I’d like Jordan to take people, I’d like Egypt to take people,” the president said on Saturday evening.

“Over the centuries there’s many, many conflicts,” he said, describing Gaza at present as “literally a demolition site.”

“Everything is demolished,” Trump said.

Israel’s carpet bombing — especially in northeastern and southern Gaza — are estimated by the United Nations to have destroyed around two thirds of the strip’s infrastructure.

“I’d rather get some of the Arab nations involved and build housing somewhere where they can live in peace for a change,” Trump continued. “I’m talking to General al-Sisi some time tomorrow.”

Both Egypt and Jordan are yet to issue an official comment on the suggestion.

On multiple occasions since Israel launched its aggression on the strip in October 2023, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has rejected any suggestion that Palestinians would be displaced to Sinai, saying it would amount to the liquidation of the Palestinian cause.

Speaking in a nationwide address in October 2023, Sisi suggested that, if Israel “insists” on displacing Palestinians out of Gaza, it should host them itself in the Naqab Desert.

Israel’s 15-month aggression, in which it killed over 47,306 Palestinians and injured hundreds of thousands more, has displaced around 90 percent of Gaza’s population.

On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians gathered at assembly points along the Rashid Road on Gaza’s coastline, waiting for Israeli permission to return to homes they were displaced from in the northern part of the strip.

Israel was due to confirm on Sunday that it would allow passage to Palestinians crossing the Netsarim corridor, a strip of land it is occupying that separates north from south Gaza.

Yet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the military will not allow Palestinians to pass, claiming that Hamas has violated the terms of the ceasefire agreement.

Israeli forces fired at crowds gathered at the designated assembly points on three different occasions overnight and into Sunday, killing two people and injuring nine, including a child, according to Awda Hospital.

Israel has long pursued plans to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza.

The Allon Plan — which went through successive drafts between 1967 and 1970 and is named after former Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Yigal Allon — originally envisioned an Israeli annexation of the Gaza Strip. This would be achieved by the transfer of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza to Sinai and the West Bank, the reduction of the strip’s population to “manageable proportions,” and the ultimate incorporation of the small territory into Israel. But this would prove to be a fanciful endeavor.

The Eiland Plan, named after a retired major general, Giora Eiland, who served as the head of the Israeli National Security Council between 2004 and 2006, followed in a similar vein. At the time, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was preparing a plan for Israel to unilaterally disengage from the Gaza Strip. Eiland developed an alternative scheme to pacify it. According to Elliot Abrams, who served as the US deputy national security advisor under the George Bush Jr. administration and who worked closely with his Israeli counterparts in drawing up the disengagement plan, Eiland sought to transfer Palestinians from Gaza to Sinai. As early as 2004, he proposed that Egypt give up territory nearly five times the size of Gaza in order to absorb a significant portion of Palestinians from the strip. In return, Cairo would be compensated with land in the southeast of Israel that would allow for a car tunnel linking Egypt and Jordan.