Trump says ‘clean out that whole thing’ as part of his plan for Gaza

US President Donald Trump listens to reporters’ questions aboard Air Force One on 25 January 2025 (Reuters)

"For 15 months, I lived in conditions beyond imagination. I lost my best friends, home, and life's work, and still, I remained steadfast on my land in the north.

This is not a choice;
Palestinians will not leave their land.

It is a part of our identity,”

US President Donald Trump has proposed a plan to "just clean out" Gaza and said he wants Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians from the territory, ​​where Israel's onslaught has displaced over 90 percent of the population.

Trump called Gaza a "demolition site" and said he had spoken to Jordan's King Abdullah II about moving Palestinians out of the territory.

"I'd like Egypt to take people. And I'd like Jordan to take people," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, adding that he planned to talk to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on Sunday.

"You're talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing," Trump said of Gaza, whose population is about 2.4 million, adding that "something has to happen".

The overwhelming majority of Gaza's population has been displaced by Israel’s 15-month war, which has devastated much of Gaza and killed over 47,000 people.

Throughout the war, Israeli politicians have on several occasions called for the transfer of Palestinians to Egypt, in what rights organisations have condemned as support for “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza.

Former far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir supported Trump’s suggestion on Sunday in a post on X.

"One of our demands from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to promote voluntary emigration. When the president of the world’s greatest superpower, Trump, personally brings up this idea, it is worth the Israeli government implementing it – promoting emigration now," he wrote.

Israeli political analyst Meron Rapoport said that the idea of "voluntary emigration" enjoys support across various circles of Israel's political class, but noted that the issue is "not in Israel’s hands."

The analyst added that for the plan to work, Palestinians would have to agree to leave their homeland and, more importantly, Egypt and Jordan would need to be willing to take in hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

"Israel would love to make the Palestinians disappear from Gaza, that is obvious. But do you think that the Palestinians will agree to move? Do you think Jordan or Egypt will agree to receive them? I don’t think so," Rapoport told Middle East Eye.

A fragile ceasefire agreement has been in place since 19 January, and on Saturday, Israel and Hamas completed their second captives-prisoners exchange. Hamas released four Israeli female soldiers in exchange for 200 Palestinian prisoners.

On Sunday, Israel blocked over 600,000 Palestinians from returning home to a vastly destroyed northern Gaza.

"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, adding that moving Gaza's residents could be "temporary or could be long term".

Rapoport said it is unlikely that Israel will try to force Egypt and Jordan to accept Palestinians into their territories if it endangered the peace agreements it has with both countries.

"These peace agreements are strategically more important to Israel than the 'thinning' of the population of the Gaza Strip," he said.

'Dealing with the issue as real estate'

Leading Palestinian rights activist Ameer Makhoul said Trump's proposal is part of an American project geared towards "reconstruction and political demographic engineering without camps and an effort to dismantle the ties of the Palestinian people".

"When it comes to the Palestinian case, there is no temporary population transfer but rather permanent displacement, as has been the case since 1948 with the refugees and 1967 with the displaced," Makhoul told MEE.

'These peace agreements are strategically more important to Israel than the 'thinning' of the population of the Gaza Strip'

- Meron Rapaport, analyst

"Trump's talk about the location of the Gaza Strip reveals his intentions to deal with the issue as real estate, as well as an attempt to control the strip and the economic resources, particularly the natural gas in the Gaza sea."

For Ahmed Dermly, a journalist who defied Israeli orders and refused to leave northern Gaza throughout the war, Trump's proposal evokes the mass displacement of Palestinians during the Nakba in 1948.

"For 15 months, I lived conditions beyond imagination. I lost my best friends, my home, and my life's work, and still I remained steadfast on my land in the north. This is not a choice; Palestinians will not leave their land. It is a part of our identity," Dermly told MEE.

"We are a people who deserve respect. It is stunning that, after all the suffering we have endured, the president of a major country could simply propose removing us from our land."

'Politically unacceptable position'

Egypt has previously warned against any "forced displacement" of Palestinians from Gaza into the country, with Sisi saying that such a move could put the 1979 peace treaty with Israel at risk.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on Sunday that Jordan's rejection of any displacement of Palestinians is "firm and unwavering".

'This is not a choice; Palestinians will not leave their land. It is a part of our identity'

- Ahmed Dermly, journalist

Jordan is already home to around 2.3 million registered Palestinian refugees, according to the United Nations.

"Egypt and Jordan will not accept Trump's proposal because it is a politically unacceptable position and poses a threat to the national security of each of them," Makhoul said.

Trump's incoming administration has pledged "unwavering support" for Israel but has not yet outlined a broader Middle East strategy.

On Saturday, the US president confirmed that he had directed the Pentagon to approve the delivery of 2,000lb (907kg) bombs to Israel, a shipment previously halted by former President Joe Biden.

"We released them today, and they'll have them. They paid for them, and they've been waiting for them for a long time. They've been in storage," Trump told reporters.

A single 2,000lb bomb is capable of penetrating dense concrete and metal, causing extensive destruction across a large area.