Trump says he wants to ‘clean out’ Gaza and relocate Palestinians in Arab nations

Donald Trump has urged Jordan and Egypt to take in around 1.9 million Palestinians as part of his plan to ‘just clean out’ Gaza after 15 months of Israel’s war.

Less than a week after his inauguration, the US President floated the idea, saying he would urge the leaders of the two Arab nations to accommodate the population of the besieged enclave.

The Republican added that resettling could be ‘temporary’ – or ‘long term’ – echoing past calls from some members of Israel’s far-right government to expel Palestinians altogether.

‘It is literally a demolition site right now,’ he said, referring to the aftermath of Israel’s air and ground invasion, now paused by a fragile ceasefire deal with Hamas.

He continued: ‘Almost everything’s demolished and people are dying there, so I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different location where I think they could maybe live in peace for a change.’

Speaking with reporters on board Air Force One plane on Saturday, Trump said he had a call earlier in the day with King Abdullah II of Jordan and was also going to speak with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi today.

Middle East experts reacted to his plans, arguing that ‘clean out’ an ethnic group and expel them from their land equates to ethnic cleansing.

British-American journalist Mehdi Hasan said: ‘A week ago I was being told to apologize for saying Trump would be worse for Gaza because he faked a temporary pause/pretend ceasefire to coincide with his inauguration.

‘Now he is just openly endorsing/encouraging ethnic cleansing.’

H.A. Hellyer, senior fellow at Center for American Progress in Washington, said such a move would be considered a second ‘Nakba’ – the exodus to neighbouring countries of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees in 1948 when the state of Israel was founded.

‘It would outrage Arabs because the historical record is very clear; every time Palestinians have been forced to leave part of Palestine, they never went back,’ Hellyer told the FT.

‘Emptying Gaza of its inhabitants would not have any support from the Arabs, or even internationally, because it is the definition of ethnic cleansing.’

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) condemned the president’s suggestion, calling it an encouragement of ‘war crimes’.

They said Trump’s ‘proposal falls within the framework of encouraging war crimes and crimes against humanity by forcing our people to leave their land’.

But there was no immediate comment from Egypt, Jordan, or from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is likely to welcome the proposal.

Israeli officials have long advocated what they describe as the voluntary migration of Palestinians and the establishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza.

Human rights groups have already accused the nation of ethnic cleansing, which United Nations experts have defined as a policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove the civilian population of another group from certain areas ‘by violent and terror-inspiring means.’

Millions of Palestinian refugees are living in camps in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and a few other countries in the Middle East.

Since the start of Israel’s war, Egypt has warned that it will not take in any more Palestinian refugees, and that any attempt to force Palestinians into their territory risks agreements that it has with Israel.

Jordan is also already home to more than 2.3 million registered Palestinian refugees, according to the UN.

It is unclear how serious Trump is about the expelling Palestinians or how far he is prepared to go.

US tariffs — one of his favourite economic tools — or outright sanctions could be devastating for Jordan and Egypt.

The two countries receive billions of dollars in American aid each year, and Egypt is already mired in an economic crisis.

But such pressure would also risk alienating key allies in the region with whom Trump has had good relations – not only el-Sissi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, but the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, all of whom support the Palestinian cause.

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