Middle East crisis live: thousands of displaced Palestinians blocked from returning to northern Gaza
Middle East crisis live: thousands of displaced Palestinians blocked from returning to northern Gaza
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US President Donald Trump has indicated that he would like to see Jordan, Egypt and other Arab nations increase the number of Palestinian refugees they are accepting from the Gaza Strip. Speaking to reporters on Air Force One yesterday, Trump, an ally of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said: “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing and say, ‘You know, it’s over.’”.
![[Palestinians wait in the central Gaza strip to be allowed to return to their homes in the north after being displaced by Israeli bombardments during the war.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/4753bd69d0b1e6abc7811dabc3498a33f20db45e/0_353_5293_3176/master/5293.jpg?width=465&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Trump also told reporters that he had call earlier in the day with King Abdullah II of Jordan and would speak with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi on Sunday. The newly inaugurated Republican president said he complimented Jordan for having successfully integrated Palestinian refugees and that he told the king: “I’d love for you to take on more, cause I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now, and it’s a mess. It’s a real mess.” For context,Jordan is already home to more than 2.39 million registered Palestinian refugees, according to the UN.
Trump added:. I don’t know, something has to happen, but it’s literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything’s demolished and people are dying there, so I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different location where I think they could maybe live in peace for a change.
Trump said that the potential housing “could be temporary” or “could be long-term”. During Israel’s 15 month war on Gaza, more than two-thirds of buildings have been destroyed or damaged by one of the most intensive bombardments in modern times. It has sparked a refugee crisis as large parts of the territory are now uninhabitable.
