US President, Donald Trump has insisted on Thursday that Egypt and Jordan would take in displaced Gazans, despite the two Arab nations dismissing his plan to move Palestinians from the territory.
Trump’s comments came a day after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah II rejecting any forced displacement of Gazans following the war between Hamas and Israel.
After an Israel-Hamas ceasefire took effect on January 19, Trump last week floated a plan to clean out the Gaza Strip and for Palestinians to move to safer locations such as Egypt or Jordan.
He said the 15-month war had reduced the Palestinian territory to a demolition site.
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.
Egypt’s Sisi, a key US ally, had said on Wednesday in his first public response to Trump’s comments that displacing the Palestinian people from their land is an injustice that they cannot take part in.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II separately stressed his country’s firm position on the need to keep the Palestinians on their land.