Trump backs permanently resettling all Gazans — in Jordan, Egypt or ‘other countries’

Responding to questions about his idea of moving Gazans out of the Strip to Arab countries, US President Donald Trump says “other countries” besides Jordan and Egypt may accept Palestinians, who will leave Gaza permanently.

“It could be Jordan and it could be Egypt and it could be other countries,” he says, adding that it could be four, five or six separate areas.

“There have been many leaders of many countries who have reached out who would like to participate in that,” Trump says of his desire to see Gazans relocated out of the Strip. “It doesn’t have to be Egypt, it doesn’t have to be Jordan, but I think it would be also them.”

“Gaza is a guarantee they’re going to end up dying. The same thing is going to happen again, over and over again,” he contends.

“I think that Gaza is a demolition site right now. If you look at Gaza, there’s hardly a building standing and the ones that are are going to collapse. You can’t live in Gaza right now. I think we need another location, a location that’s going to make people happy.”

“It’s all death in Gaza,” he continues, alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “This has been happening for years. It’s all death. If we can get a beautiful area to resettle people permanently in nice homes, and then they can be happy enough, not be shot, not be killed, not be knifed to death like what’s happening in Gaza. Right now you have in Gaza a very dangerous situation in terms of explosives all over the place.”

“I believe we can do it in areas where leaders currently say no,” he says.

He adds that if Gazans had an alternative, “they’d much rather not go back.”

“It would be my hope that we could do something really nice, really beautiful, where they wouldn’t want to return,” says Trump. “Why would they want to return. That place has been hell.”

He says that money for the project will come from “other people, really rich nations and they’re willing to supply it.”

Asked how many Gazans he is thinking of relocating, he says, “All of them. We’re talking about probably a million seven, maybe a million eight. But I think all of them. They’ll be resettled in areas where they can live a beautiful life and not be worried about dying every day.”