Asked by Baier if Palestinians would be allowed to return to Gaza, Trump replied: “No, they wouldn’t because they’re going to have much better housing. In other words, I’m talking about building a permanent place for them.” Trump mentioned Jordan and Egypt as countries that Gaza’s Palestinians would be sent to, and he expressed optimism about making a “deal” with the two governments.
“You know, we give them billions and billions of dollars a year,” he said.
Trump’s initial proposal last week for the United States to “take over” Gaza and displace all its residents prompted a swift rejection from Saudi Arabia and sparked anger in nearby countries, including Jordan, that are already home to millions of Palestinian refugees. Jordan’s leader, King Abdullah II, is set to meet the president in Washington on Tuesday.
Trump’s plan for the Strip was also met with immediate alarm from the United Nations and others who said it would violate international law, The Washington Post reported. “Any forced displacement of people is tantamount to ethnic cleansing,” U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said when asked about the U.S. president’s proposals.
Trump told reporters Sunday that the United States will make Gaza “into a very good site for future development by somebody,” adding that “people can come from all over the world” and live there. He also said he would consider allowing some Palestinians to settle in the United States on a case-by-case basis.
“It’s strange at the moment to be in a period when statecraft seems to have been replaced by real estate craft,” Tom Fletcher, the U.N. humanitarian chief, said of Trump’s plan, speaking in an interview Sunday after he toured the occupied Palestinian territory.
He added that Palestinians must be part of any conversation around the enclave’s future. “I was asking a lot of people what they thought, and every single one of them said: ‘We’re not going anywhere. We’ll rebuild our homes again and again and again as we always have done.’”
Matt Viser, Lior Soroka and Niha Masih contributed to this report.