WASHINGTON — Jordan’s King Abdullah II said he would take in 2,000 Palestinian children from Gaza who are very sick or suffering from cancer, signaling new openness to a plan by President Donald Trump to drive a deal that would resettle the residents of the war-torn strip.
Trump called the offer a “beautiful gesture” and said he believed “99%” that something could be worked out with Egypt, another regional partner that had bristled at the president’s surprise plan. “We’ll have some others helping,” Trump added.
Seated with Trump in the Oval Office, King Abdullah said they must ensure a plan that satisfies all parties, a not insignificant obstacle as questions remain about how each country might move to relocate a swell of people who have suffered many months of devastation, and which some fear will further undermine efforts to create a Palestinian state. More than one million Palestinians remain without homes, and King Abdullah declined to say whether he would be willing to take in refugees in larger numbers. “We have to look at the best interests of the United States, of the people in the region, especially to my people of Jordan,” he said. Questioned further by reporters about Trump’s ideas, the king said he would refrain from saying much until Egypt had a chance to weigh in.
There are already over 2 million Palestinian refugees in Jordan, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, which says that most of them have citizenship. Queen Rania and her family were Palestinian refugees who fled Kuwait.
Trump’s proposal to “own” the Gaza Strip and relocate its residents has stirred opposition from the U.S.’s Arab partners and from world leaders across the globe who largely favor a two-state solution. However, Trump has not ceded the proposal and continued in the days since to press his ideas to take over and develop the territory after first announcing it last week during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House.
In an interview with Fox News that aired Monday night, Trump said that those leaving Gaza would not have a right to return and named Egypt and Jordan as two countries whom he expects to take in Palestinians. Trump said it’s a project he wants to start “almost immediately.” He has referred to the territory as a demolition site.
On Tuesday, he billed it as a step towards bringing “peace to the Middle East” and said it would become a driver of new jobs in the region. “We’re going to run it very properly,” Trump told reporters and reiterated his ideas for a development plan for the territory that includes hotels and other investments. Seated to the president’s left were top advisers and officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz.
“It’s a death trap,” Trump said of Gaza as he mused about the possibilities. He said that it’s a place where no one would want to stay, and “they are living in hell.”
Asked if he would consider withholding U.S. aid, Trump suggested he had moved on from the idea, telling reporters, “I do think we’re above that.”
“We contribute a lot of money to Jordan and to Egypt, by the way, a lot to both, but I don’t have to threaten that,” Trump said, seeming to walk back the suggestion that he was open to it.
A reliable U.S. partner, King Abdullah now finds himself weighing a tentative path forward after America’s Arab partners, including Jordan and Egypt, rejected Trump’s proposal last week. On the eve of his meeting with Trump, the U.S. president threatened to cut off aid to Jordan, an annual sum of more than $1 billion. American foreign aid is currently paused as part of a sweeping halt by the Trump administration.
A senior Jordanian official told NBC News last week there was no way that Jordan could accept more refugees after harboring large refugee populations for decades from Syria and other countries in the region. But Jordan relies heavily on U.S. aid — and additional U.S. spending in Jordan goes to defend U.S. interests supporting Syrian Defense Force allies guarding ISIS prisoners in Syria — and preventing a resurgence of ISIS in Syria.
Trump’s plan is also a nonstarter with Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman — a key U.S. partner who rejected it within an hour of Trump’s initial comments last week.
Jordan, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Monday, would resettle Palestinians from Gaza, as would other surrounding countries, because they have “good hearts.” He said his administration had spoken to Palestinians who “would love to leave Gaza if they could find a place to be,” as well as leaders in the region whom he said were working to find a solution to the devastation caused by more than 15 months of war between Hamas and Israel.
“They were very positive about providing land,” Trump said. “What we need is land, and if we could build a nice place for people to live safely, everybody in Gaza would do it.”
He added: “They would love to get out of Gaza, but until now, they’ve never had an alternative. Now they have an alternative.”
A fragile ceasefire has paused the fighting in Gaza, but the conflict risks reigniting as Hamas said it will postpone the release of more hostages. Trump has warned Hamas to release all remaining hostages by Saturday, but warned on Tuesday that he believes they could blow past it.
Netanyahu said Tuesday in a video statement posted to X that Israel is prepared to terminate the ceasefire agreement Hamas does not return all the remaining hostages by Saturday.
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