President Donald Trump speaks to reporters aboard Air Force 1 as he travels from Las Vegas to Miami on Saturday. Mark Schiefelbein/AP Hide Caption
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Mark Schiefelbein/AP
ABOARD AIR FORCE 1 – President Donald Trump said Saturday that he wants Jordan, Egypt and other Arab countries to increase the number of Palestinian refugees they take in from the Gaza Strip. War-torn areas to create a virtual clean slate.
In a 20-minute question-and-answer session with reporters aboard Air Force 1 on Saturday, Trump also said he ended his predecessor’s grip on sending 2,000 pounds of bombs to Israel. It has raised pressure points that were meant to reduce civilian casualties during Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, now halted by a tenuous ceasefire.
“We released them today,” Trump said of the bombs. “They’ve been waiting for them for a long time.” Asked why he lifted the ban on those bombs, Trump replied, “Because they bought them.”
Trump has built his political career around not disavowing Israel. Regarding his bigger vision for Gaza, Trump said he called Jordan’s King Abdullah II earlier in the day and would speak with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi on Sunday. .
“I want to bring people to Egypt,” Trump said. “You’re probably talking about a million and a half years, so we clean all of that up and say, ‘You know, it’s over.’ ”
Trump praised Jordan for successfully hosting Palestinian refugees and told the king, “I want you to do more, because I’m looking at the entire Gaza Strip right now, and it’s a mess.” It’s a mess. A real mess.”
Such a dramatic displacement of people would openly contradict Palestinian identity and deep ties to Gaza. Still, Trump said the part of the world that encompasses Gaza “has had many, many conflicts” over the centuries. He said the resettlement “could be temporary or long-term.”
“Something has to happen,” Trump said. “But it’s literally a demolition site. Almost everything has been demolished and people are dying there.” He added:
There was no immediate comment from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
Trump has offered nontraditional views on Gaza’s future in the past. He made the proposal after Gaza began “really starting to be rebuilt in a different way” on Monday.
The new president said, “Gaza is interesting. It’s an amazing place on the sea. Great weather, you know, everything is good.
Meanwhile, his resumption of the big bomb was in line with then-President Joe Biden, who halted deliveries in May as part of an effort to prevent Israel from launching a full-scale offensive in Rafah, south of Gaza City. It’s a break. A month later, Israel took control of the city, but after the majority of the 1 million civilians living or taking refuge in Rafah had fled.
“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a result of these bombs and other methods of going after population centers,” Biden told CNN as he raised his weapon in May. “If they go into Rafah…I have made it clear that we are not supplying the weapons that have historically been used to deal with Rafah.
Biden’s suspension also lifted 1,700 500-pound bombs packaged in the same shipment to Israel, but those bombs were delivered weeks later.
Trump’s action celebrated the first phase of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and saw the release of several hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. It happens when we celebrate something. Negotiations have not yet begun in earnest with the more difficult second phase of the deal, which will ultimately see the release of all hostages held by Hamas and a permanent cessation of fighting.
The Israeli government threatened to resume war with Hamas, which launched a major attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, if the remaining hostages were not released.
