US president Donald Trump has called for Middle Eastern nations to take in Palestinian refugees from the Gaza Strip – even though many Palestinians do not want to leave the territory.
Speaking at the White House alongside Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr Trump called on the likes of Jordan and Egypt to “open their hearts and give us the kind of land that we need to get this done”.
His remarks were met with a similar rebuke to his proposal to “clean out” Gaza last week: the Palestinians must not be forced out of their homes.
Saudi Arabia, an important American ally, weighed in quickly on Mr Trump's expanded idea to take over the Gaza Strip in a sharply worded statement, noting that its long call for an independent Palestinian state was a "firm, steadfast and unwavering position”.
Alongside the current 2.3 million population of Gaza, Palestinian refugees number some six million, with most living in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.
More than 2.39 million Palestinians are registered as refugees living in Jordan, according to United Nations figures. A further 489,292 live in Lebanon, as of March 2023, while around 100,000 are in Egypt. Jordan has previously said it is against displacing Palestinians from Gaza.
Cairo insists that the Sinai region bordering Israel and Gaza cannot be used to house Palestinians from Gaza. Egypt's foreign minister and the Palestinian prime minister called to rebuild Gaza without forcing out its Palestinian residents.
Palestinian prime minister Mohamad Mustafa provided "an integrated vision" to remove the rubble and rebuild Gaza in cooperation with international groups, according to an Egyptian Foreign Ministry statement after Mustafa met with Egypt's foreign minister Badr Abdelatty in Cairo.
The statement did not address Mr Trump's remarks directly but said both sides called to accelerate rebuilding and the delivery of aid "without moving the Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip."
Palestinians fear they could suffer a second “Nakba”, Arabic for catastrophe, after their mass expulsion in 1948. Some 700,000 Palestinians — a majority of the pre-war population — fled or were driven from their homes before and during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war that followed Israel's establishment.
"Trump can go to hell, with his ideas, with his money, and with his beliefs. We are going nowhere. We are not some of his assets," Samir Abu Basil, 40, a father of five from Gaza City, told Reuters.
"The easier for him if he wants to resolve this conflict is to take the Israelis and put them in one of the states there. They are the strangers and not the Palestinians. We are the owner of the land."
