Media reports say US President Donald Trump proposes relocating Palestinians of Gaza to Egypt and Jordan. Trump’s suggestion that Egypt and Jordan take in Palestinians from the war-ravaged Gaza Strip was met with a hard “no” from both Jordan and Egypt along with the Palestinians themselves, who fear Israel would never allow them to return.
The Associated Press (AP) reported today morning that Trump floated the idea on Saturday, saying he would urge the leaders of the two Arab countries to take in Gaza’s now largely homeless population, so that “we just clean out that whole thing.” He reportedly added that resettling most of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million could be temporary or long term.
Describing Gaza as a “demolition site”, Trump said: "You're talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing". He added that the move “could be temporary" or "could be long-term”.
Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority condemned the proposal. Jordan and Egypt have also rejected the idea.
Le Monde says the Arab League said on Sunday that “the forced displacement and eviction of people from their land can only be called ethnic cleansing.” “Attempts to uproot the Palestinian people from their land, whether by displacement, annexation or settlement expansion, have been proven to fail in the past,” the regional bloc said in a statement.
There was no immediate comment from Israel.
Human rights groups have already accused Israel 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.”
Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said Trump’s proposal, if implemented, “would amount to an alarming escalation in the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and exponentially increase their suffering.”
Citing Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry, the BBC reports that more than 47,200 Palestinians, the majority civilians, have been killed in Israel's offensive.
Most of Gaza's two million residents have reportedly been displaced in the past 15 months of the war, which has flattened much of Gaza's infrastructure.
The United Nations has previously estimated that 60% of structures across Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, and it could take decades to rebuild.
