US President Donald Trump has insisted that Egypt and Jordan would take in displaced people of Gaza, despite the two Arab nations dismissing his controversial plan to uproot Palestinians from the territory.
"They will do it," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday when asked for his response to the Egyptian and Jordanian refusal, and whether he would consider imposing tariffs on either country to push them.
"They're going to do it. We do a lot for them, and they're going to do it."
Trump's comments came a day after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi and Jordan's King Abdullah II rejected any forced displacement of Palestinians following Israel's genocidal war on Gaza.
After a ceasefire in Israel's war took effect on January 19, Trump last week floated a plan to "clean out" Gaza and for Palestinians to relocate to "safer" locations such as Egypt or Jordan.
He said Israel's 15-month war had reduced the Palestinian territory to a "demolition site."
'Clean out' Gaza
Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff made a rare trip to Gaza this week, the White House said, in a bid to prop up the fragile ceasefire. He also met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Witkoff, after his trip to the Middle East, described the devastation in Gaza as overwhelming.
"There is almost nothing left of Gaza," he told the Axios news website. "People are moving north to get back to their homes and see what happened and turn around and leave ... there is no water and no electricity. It is stunning just how much damage occurred there."
Witkoff, a real estate investor and developer, estimated that clearing the debris alone could take five years, with additional time needed to assess underground tunnels before reconstruction could begin.
"There has been this perception we can get to a solid plan for Gaza in five years. But it's impossible. This is a 10- to 15-year rebuilding plan," he said.
President Sisi said on Wednesday in his first public response to Trump's comments that displacing "the Palestinian people from their land is an injustice that we cannot take part in."
He added that, if he were to consider accepting the displacement of Palestinians, the Egyptian people would take to the streets against the move.
Jordan's King Abdullah II separately stressed his country's "firm position on the need to keep the Palestinians on their land."
Since the start of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, both Egypt and Jordan have warned of plans to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza and the occupied West Bank across their borders.
Trump's proposal has received widespread condemnation, with critics calling it "ethnic cleansing" and a "war crime."
Many countries in the Muslim and Arab world as well as European nations such as France have firmly rejected the idea.
