Trump pushes Gazan relocation plan in call with Egyptian president

‘I’d like to get Gazans living somewhere they can live without disruption,’ Trump says, doubling down on call for Egypt and Jordan to take in Gazan refugees.

By David Rosenberg, World Israel News

President Donald Trump is continuing his push to find third-party countries to host Gaza refugees, despite initial opposition to his plan.

Speaking with reporters on Air Force One on Monday while en route to Joint Base Andrews, the president discussed his telephone call with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sunday.

Over the weekend, Trump spoke with both Jordan’s King Abdullah II and al-Sisi about the prospect of the two countries taking in some of the roughly 1.5 million Gazans the Trump administration hopes to relocate as part of a voluntary mass migration, during which the Gaza Strip could be rehabilitated and rebuilt.

In his comments to the press over the weekend, Trump said the move could be either temporary or “long-term.”

While the Egyptian Foreign Ministry immediately rejected the proposal, calling it an “infringement” on the rights of Palestinian Arabs, Trump said that when he discussed the plan with al-Sisi, the Egyptian president responded by calling for “peace in the Middle East.”

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“His response [was] that he’d like to see peace in the Middle East,” Trump said. “I’d like to see peace in the Middle East.”

“I’d like to get them living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence,” the president continued. “When you look at the Gaza Strip it’s been hell for so many years.”

“It just seems to me there’s been various civilizations on that Strip and, you know, it didn’t start here. It started thousands of years before, and there’s always been violence associated with it.

“So, I think you could get people living in areas that are a lot safer and maybe a lot better and maybe a lot more comfortable.”

Trump reiterated his call for Egypt to “take some” of Gaza’s displaced residents.

“I wish [Sisi] would take some [Gazans]. We helped them a lot, and I’m sure he’d help us. He’s a friend of mine. He’s in a very rough part of the world, to be honest. As they say, It’s a rough neighborhood. But I think he would do it, and I think the King of Jordan would do it too.”

The Trump administration has also reportedly reached out to other countries, including Albania and Indonesia – both of which have Muslim majorities – for his Gaza relocation plan.

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The president declined to say whether he still supports Palestinian statehood and responded to questions in that vein by stating that he will be “speaking with Bibi Netanyahu in the not-too-distant future.”

“He’s coming here to meet with me,” Trump continued, adding that the meeting will be “very soon.”

Two sources cited by The Times of Israel said that the Prime Minister’s Office is in talks with Washington for a trip to Washington beginning next Sunday and concluding the following Wednesday.

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