By ZEKE MILLER and WILL WEISSERT
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) — President Donald Trump said Saturday he’d
like to see Jordan, Egypt and other Arab nations increase the number of
Palestinian refugees they are accepting from the Gaza Strip —
potentially moving out enough of the population to “just clean out” the
war-torn area to create virtual clean slate.
During a 20-minute question-and-answer session with reporters aboard Air
Force One on Saturday, Trump said he discussed his vision on a call
earlier in the day with King Abdullah II of Jordan and would speak
Sunday with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt.
“I’d like him to take people. I’d like Egypt to take people,” said
Trump. “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.’”
Speaking about the effects of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, Trump
said he complimented Jordan for having successfully accepted Palestinian
refugees and that he told the king, “I’d love for you to take on more,
cause I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now, and it’s a mess.
It’s a real mess.”
He said of such a mass movement of Palestinians, “it could be temporary
or long term,” adding that the area of the world that encompasses Gaza,
“over centuries” has “had many, many conflicts.”
“Something has to happen,” Trump said. “But it’s literally a demolition
site right now. Almost everything’s demolished, and people are dying
there.” He added: “So, I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab
nations, and build housing in a different location, where they can maybe
live in peace for a change.”
President Donald Trump has ended his predecessor’s hold on sending
2,000-pound bombs to Israel, lifting a pressure point that had been
meant to reduce civilian casualties during the U.S. ally’s war with
Hamas in Gaza that is now halted by a tenuous ceasefire.
In a post on his Truth Social network Saturday, Trump said, “A lot of
things that were ordered and paid for by Israel, but have not been sent
by Biden, are now on their way!”
“We released them today,” Trump said of the bombs. He told reporters on
Air Force One, “they’ve been waiting for them for a long time. You know,
they’ve been in storage for a long time and we released them today to
Israel.”
Then-President Joe Biden halted the delivery of the large bombs in May
as part of an effort to keep Israel from launching an all-out assault on
the southern Gaza city of Rafah. A month later, Israel did take control
of the city, but after the vast majority of the 1 million civilians that
had been living or sheltering in Rafah had fled.
“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and
other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden told CNN in
May when he held up the weapons. “I made it clear that if they go into
Rafah ... I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically
to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, that deal with that
problem.”
The Biden pause had also held up 1,700 500-pound bombs that had been
packaged in the same shipment to Israel, but weeks later those bombs
were delivered.
Trump’s action, five days into his term, comes as he has celebrated the
first phase of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel that has paused the
fighting and seen the release of some hostages held by Hamas in Gaza in
return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Negotiations have yet to begin in earnest on the more difficult second
phase of the deal that would eventually see the release of all hostages
held by Hamas and an enduring halt to the fighting.
The Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has
threatened to resume its war against Hamas — which launched a massive
assault against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 — if the remaining hostages are
not released.
—
Miller reported from Washington
