President Trump doubled down on his remarks about "cleaning out" Palestinians from Gaza ahead of his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday. Trump told reporters at the White House that he wants Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians, the New York Times reports. "They have no alternative right now" but to leave Gaza, Trump said, adding that the resettlement could be permanent. "It is a big pile of rubble right now," Trump said of Gaza. "I don't know how they could want to stay. It's a demolition site. It's a pure demolition site."
CNN reports that Trump asked, "Why would they want to return?" and ignored a reporter who cried out, "Because it's their home." "I think we need another location," Trump said, per the AP. "I think it should be a location that's going to make people happy. You look over the decades, it's all death in Gaza. This has been happening for years. It's all death. If we can get a beautiful area to resettle people, permanently, in nice homes where they can be happy and not be shot and not be killed and not be knifed to death like what's happening in Gaza." Asked if he was still committed to his 2020 plan that called for a Palestinian state, Trump said, "Well, a lot of plans change with time."
Last month, the leaders of Egypt and Jordan "flatly rejected" Trump's call for them to take in more Palestinians, the AP notes. After Trump's latest remarks, the Palestinian Authority's envoy to the United Nations said world leaders should respect people's desire to remain in Gaza. "Our homeland is our homeland, if part of it is destroyed, the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian people selected the choice to return to it," Riyad Mansour said, per the Times of Israel. "And I think that leaders and people should respect the wishes of the Palestinian people." (More Gaza stories.)
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