“They will carry it out. Donald Trump said from the Oval Office, “We do a lot for them,” dismissing the rejection of his contentious plan to ethnically cleanse Palestinians in Gaza by Cairo and Amman.
Despite the two Arab countries rejecting his contentious plan to expel Palestinians from Gaza, US President Donald Trump has urged that Egypt and Jordan host the displaced Gazans.
“They will do it,” Trump said to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday when they asked him how he would respond to the Jordanian and Egyptian rejection and if he would think about putting tariffs on either nation to put pressure on them.
“They will carry it out. They will do it, and we do a lot for them.”
Trump’s remarks were made the day after Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi denounced the forced relocation of Palestinians in the wake of Israel’s deadly war on Gaza.
Trump last week proposed a plan to “clean out” Gaza and force Palestinians to transfer to “safer” places like Egypt or Jordan after a ceasefire in Israel’s war went into effect on January 19.
He claimed that the 15-month conflict between Israel and the Palestinians had left the land a “demolition site.”
“Clean out” Gaza
According to the White House, Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, traveled to Gaza for the first time this week in an attempt to support the shaky ceasefire. Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, was also greeted by him.
Following his visit to the Middle East, Witkoff called the destruction in Gaza “overwhelming.”
According to him, “There is almost nothing left of Gaza,” the news website Axios reported. “There is no electricity or water, so people are heading north to return to their homes, see what happened, and then turn around and leave. The extent of the damage there is astounding.
Developer and real estate investor Witkoff calculated that just cleaning the rubble might take five years, and that further time would be required to evaluate subterranean tunnels before reconstruction could start.
There is a belief that we can arrive at a sound plan for Gaza within five years. However, it isn’t feasible. He stated that the reconstruction plan will take ten to fifteen years.
In his initial public reaction to Trump’s remarks, President Sisi stated on Wednesday that forcing “the Palestinian people from their land is an injustice that we cannot take part in.”
He went on to say that the Egyptian people would protest the relocation in the streets if he were to entertain the idea of relocating the Palestinians.
Separately, King Abdullah II of Jordan emphasized his nation’s “firm position on the need to keep the Palestinians on their land.”
Both Egypt and Jordan have issued warnings about intentions to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza and the occupied West Bank over their borders since Israel began its murderous attack on Gaza in October 2023.
Trump’s plan has drawn a lot of criticism, with some referring to it as “ethnic cleansing” and a “war crime.”
The notion has been categorically rejected by European countries like France, as well as by many Muslim and Arab nations.
