President Donald Trump said Saturday that he has asked the King of Jordan to take in more Palestinians, adding that Palestinians should leave the Gaza Strip to “clean out” the enclave.
The president’s comments, which key figures from Israel’s far-right have taken as a boost, came as thousands of Palestinians waited to return to their homes in northern Gaza after the Israeli government accused Hamas of breaching a ceasefire agreement and refused to open crossing points.
“I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change,” Trump said to reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday.
“You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing and say, ‘You know, it’s over,’” he added.
Trump suggested Egypt and Jordan could be among the countries to accept more refugees.
Referring to an earlier conversation with Jordan’s King Abdullah, Trump said he had urged the monarch, “I’d love you to take on more” Palestinians, adding that he would raise the matter with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday.
While the Israeli prime minister’s office had yet to respond to NBC News’s request for comment regarding Trump’s remarks, the president’s sentiments were welcomed by ultranationalist Israeli politicians, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, who resigned as justice minister after Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government voted to accept the ceasefire agreement.
Smotrich called the idea of finding new homes for Gaza residents “wonderful,” telling Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 on Sunday that “only out-of-the-box thinking and new solutions will bring peace and security.
Ben-Gvir also congratulated Trump on the initiative in a post on X.
But Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas spokesperson, said “the people of Gaza had endured death in order not to leave the homeland and will not leave it for any other reasons.”
“Implementing the agreement is sufficient to solve the problems of the Gaza Strip,” he added.
And United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese said on X on Sunday that “ethnic cleansing is anything but ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking no matter how one packages it.”
The Jordanian or Egyptian governments had yet to respond to a request for comment on the matter.
Trump also confirmed he had instructed the US military to resume shipments of 2,000 pound bombs to Israel, which had been paused under President Biden due to concerns over civilian casualties. When asked why he had authorized the release of these bombs, Trump responded, “because they bought them.”
Despite the resumption of those shipments, a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas continued to hold Sunday, despite each side accusing the other of reneging on parts of the deal.
While Hamas officials said that Palestinians being allowed to return to their homes in the north of the Gaza Strip was a key condition of the truce, Israeli officials contended that Hamas were supposed to release all female civilians it is holding hostage before the four female soldiers who were released in an exchange for prisoners and detainees on Saturday.
The future of the ceasefire may now hinge on what happens with one specific hostage: 29-year-old Arbel Yehud.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s office said Saturday that the IDF will not allow Gazans to return to north of the strip “until the release of the citizen Arbel Yehud.”
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a spokesperson for the Israeli military, added that Hamas had violated the ceasefire by not first releasing civilian hostages as part of the agreement, including Shiri Bibas, 33, who was abducted during the Hamas-led terror attack of Oct. 7 2023 with her two sons, two-year-old Kfir and five-year-old Ariel.
Their fate is unknown, although Hamas has previously said they were killed in an Israeli airstrike, while the Israeli government has said it is unable to verify that claim.
Fighting began in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, when the Palestinian militant group Hamas carried out a terror attack on Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage. That saw Israel launch an air and land assault on Gaza, killing more than 47,000 people, most of them civilians, according to local officials.
The Israel Defense Force’s Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, said on X early Sunday morning saying that the Netzarim corridor, a military zone in Gaza City that effectively separates northern and central Gaza remained closed “in light of Hamas’ breach of the cease-fire agreement.”
It is unclear why Yehud has not been freed, though it was initially believed she was held by Islamic Jihad.
Hamas, in turn, has accused Israel of obstructing the ceasefire by blocking key areas and preventing Palestinians from returning to their homes, holding Israel responsible for any delays in fulfilling the terms of the agreement.
Israel “continues to renege on the ceasefire agreement, stalling and obstructing the implementation of its commitments” the Hamas statement said, saying that agreement stipulates that Israel must withdraw from the Netzarim corridor.
It added that it held Israel “fully responsible for the severe humanitarian consequences.”
