DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — President Donald Trump’s advice that Egypt and Jordan absorb Palestinians from the war-ravaged Gaza Strip could be met with a difficult “no” from the 2 U.S. allies and the Palestinians themselves who concern Israel would by no means permit them to go back.Trump floated the theory on Saturday, pronouncing he would urge the leaders of the 2 Arab nations to absorb Gaza’s now in large part homeless inhabitants, in order that “we simply blank out that complete factor.” He added that resettling Gaza’s inhabitants “may well be transient or long run.”“It’s actually a demolition web site at the moment,” Trump mentioned, relating to the huge destruction brought about via Israel’s 15-month army marketing campaign towards Hamas, now paused via a delicate ceasefire. “I’d fairly get entangled with one of the most Arab countries, and construct housing in a unique location, the place they are able to possibly reside in peace for a transformation,” Trump mentioned.
There used to be no rapid remark from Egypt, Jordan, Israel or Palestinian officers.The theory could be welcomed via Israel, the place High Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right governing companions have lengthy advocated what they describe because the voluntary migration of huge numbers of Palestinians and the reestablishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza.Human rights teams have already accused Israel of ethnic cleaning, which United Countries professionals have outlined as a coverage designed via one ethnic or spiritual workforce to take away the civilian inhabitants of any other workforce from sure spaces “via violent and terror-inspiring approach.”
A Historical past of DisplacementBefore and all over the 1948 warfare surrounding Israel’s advent, some 700,000 Palestinians — a majority of the prewar inhabitants — fled or had been pushed from their houses in what’s now Israel, an tournament they commemorate because the Nakba — Arabic for disaster.
An aerial {photograph} taken via a drone presentations displaced Palestinians returning to Rafah, an afternoon after the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas got here into impact, Gaza Strip, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photograph/Mohammad Abu Samra)
An aerial {photograph} taken via a drone presentations displaced Palestinians returning to Rafah, an afternoon after the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas got here into impact, Gaza Strip, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. (AP Photograph/Mohammad Abu Samra)Learn Extra
Israel refused so they can go back as a result of it will have led to a Palestinian majority inside its borders. The refugees and their descendants now quantity round 6 million, with huge communities in Gaza, the place they make up nearly all of the inhabitants, in addition to the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
Within the 1967 Mideast warfare, when Israel seized the West Financial institution and Gaza Strip, 300,000 extra Palestinians fled, most commonly into Jordan.The decades-old refugee disaster has been a big driving force of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle and used to be one of the crucial thorniest problems in peace talks that final broke down in 2009. The Palestinians declare a appropriate of go back, whilst Israel says they will have to be absorbed via surrounding Arab nations.
Palestinians carry out Friday prayers close to the ruins of a mosque destroyed via Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025, days after the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas got here into impact. (AP Photograph/Jehad Alshrafi)
Palestinians carry out Friday prayers close to the ruins of a mosque destroyed via Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Friday, Jan. 24, 2025, days after the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas got here into impact. (AP Photograph/Jehad Alshrafi)Learn Extra
Many Palestinians view the newest warfare in Gaza, by which complete neighborhoods were shelled to oblivion and 90% of the inhabitants of two.3 million were compelled from their houses, as a brand new Nakba. They concern that if huge numbers of Palestinians go away Gaza, then they too would possibly by no means go back.Steadfastly last on one’s land is central to Palestinian tradition, and used to be on vibrant show in Gaza on Sunday, when 1000’s of other people attempted to go back to probably the most closely destroyed a part of the territory.
A pink line for nations that made peace with Israel a long time agoEgypt and Jordan fiercely rejected the theory of accepting Gaza refugees early within the warfare, when it used to be floated via some Israeli officers.Each nations have made peace with Israel however beef up the advent of a Palestinian state within the occupied West Financial institution, Gaza and east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured within the 1967 Mideast warfare. They concern that the everlasting displacement of Gaza’s inhabitants may just make that not possible.Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has additionally warned of the safety implications of moving huge numbers of Palestinians to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, bordering Gaza.Hamas and different militant teams are deeply rooted in Palestinian society and are prone to transfer with the refugees, which might imply that long run wars could be fought on Egyptian soil, one thing that might get to the bottom of the ancient Camp David peace treaty, a cornerstone of regional balance.“The peace which we now have accomplished would vanish from our fingers,” el-Sissi mentioned in October 2023, after Hamas’ assault on southern Israel brought about the warfare. “Curious about the sake of the theory of getting rid of the Palestinian motive.”
That’s what came about in Lebanon within the Nineteen Seventies, when Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Group, the main militant workforce of its time, reworked the rustic’s south right into a launchpad for assaults on Israel. The refugee disaster and the PLO’s movements helped push Lebanon right into a 15-year civil warfare in 1975. Israel invaded two times and occupied southern Lebanon from 1982 till 2000.Jordan, which clashed with the PLO and expelled it beneath equivalent instances in 1970, already hosts greater than 2 million Palestinian refugees, nearly all of whom were granted citizenship.Israeli ultranationalists have lengthy instructed that Jordan be thought to be a Palestinian state in order that Israel can stay the West Financial institution, which they view because the biblical heartland of the Jewish other people. Jordan’s monarchy has vehemently rejected that state of affairs.
Can Trump drive Egypt and Jordan to simply accept refugees?That is determined by how critical Trump is in regards to the thought and the way a long way he’s ready to move.
President Donald Trump speaks to journalists aboard Air Pressure One as he travels from Las Vegas to Miami on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP Photograph/Mark Schiefelbein)
President Donald Trump speaks to journalists aboard Air Pressure One as he travels from Las Vegas to Miami on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP Photograph/Mark Schiefelbein)Learn Extra
U.S. price lists — one among Trump’s favourite financial equipment — or outright sanctions may well be devastating for Jordan and Egypt. The 2 nations obtain billions of greenbacks in American assist each and every 12 months, and Egypt is already mired in an financial disaster.However permitting an inflow of refugees may be destabilizing. Egypt says it’s lately website hosting some 9 million migrants, together with refugees from Sudan’s civil warfare. Jordan, with a inhabitants of not up to 12 million, is website hosting over 700,000 refugees, basically from Syria.U.S. drive would additionally possibility alienating key allies within the area with whom Trump has had just right family members — now not best el-Sissi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, however the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, all of whom beef up the Palestinian motive.That may doubtlessly complicate efforts to dealer a ancient settlement between Saudi Arabia and Israel to normalize family members, one thing Trump attempted to do all over his earlier time period and expects to finish in his present one.___Associated Press creator Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this document.___Follow AP’s warfare protection at
