President Trump said he told King Abdullah II II. Jordan during a call on Saturday that he would like Jordan and Egypt to accept more Palestinians from Gaza, an idea that is likely to reignite the debate over the future of the nearly two million Palestinians.
“I told him, ‘I’d like you to marry more, because now I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip and it’s a mess,'” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. He added that he would also like Egypt to accept more Palestinians and that in on Sunday he will speak with the country’s president, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
Mr Trump made the remarks on an evening flight after a rally in Las Vegas; It is unclear whether they signal a change in US policy toward the Palestinians.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians started return to their homes as the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel enters its second week. It’s only the second one Pause in the fight between the two since October 7, 2023, when Hamas led an attack on Israel that killed more than 1,200 Israelis. Since then, the Israeli military has killed at least 46,000 Palestiniansaccording to Gazan health officials, who do not distinguish between fighters and civilians. It also destroyed thousands of homes and buildings in Gaza and killed many Hamas leaders.
Most of the two million Palestinians in Gaza have had to flee their homes at least once. And even though Aid has increased in recent daysThe humanitarian situation remains dire, with water, food and medicine in short supply and few working hospitals left.
“You’re talking about a million and a half people, and we just cleared the whole thing,” Mr. Trump said of Gaza. “I don’t know. Something has to happen, but right now it’s literally a demolition site.”
Millions of Palestinian refugees live in camps in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and several other countries in the Middle East. Since the start of the war, Egypt has said it will not take any Palestinian refugees and that any attempt to force Palestinians into their territory risks the agreement it has with Israel.
