Egypt expressed its strong support for the Palestinian people and their rights to their land and homeland in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion on Saturday, 26 January, that Jordan and Egypt take in Palestinians from Gaza, as the enclave grapple with a catastrophic humanitarian crisis following months of war.
Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reaffirmed its commitment to international law and international humanitarian law, stressing its rejection of any violation of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. It condemned settlement expansion, land annexation, and the displacement of Palestinians through forced relocation or efforts to transfer or uproot them from their land, whether temporary or permanent.
These actions threaten stability, risk escalating the conflict, and weaken the prospects for peace and coexistence in the region, according to the ministry.
On 26 January, speaking to reporters, Trump indicated that such a measure could be temporary or permanent, stating it “could be either.”
The comments drew swift criticism from Hamas, the militant group governing Gaza, which accused the United States of masking broader aims under the guise of humanitarian assistance.
“Palestinians will not accept any offers or solutions, even if they appear to have good intentions under the guise of reconstruction,” Basem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, told Reuters.
Rights groups and humanitarian organizations have warned for months about the escalating crisis in Gaza, where an Israeli military campaign has displaced nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, creating dire conditions including widespread hunger.
Washington has consistently faced scrutiny for its strong support of Israel while claiming to oppose the forced displacement of Palestinians.
Trump said he had pressed King Abdullah of Jordan in a Saturday call to consider absorbing some of Gaza’s displaced residents.
“I said to him, I’d love you to take on more because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now, and it’s a mess, it’s a real mess. I’d like him to take people,” the president remarked.
He added that he planned to have a similar conversation with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
“You’re talking about a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” Trump said.
Gaza, Trump described, is “literally a demolition site, almost everything is demolished, and people are dying there.”
In November 2024, the Presidents of Egypt and Jordan reiterated their unified stance on opposing forced displacement and the resolution of the Palestinian issue. Both leaders emphasized the urgency for the international community to take meaningful action to halt the ongoing conflict and initiate a peace process grounded in the two-state solution.
Egyptian Foreign Minister, Badr Abdelatty, and Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Ayman Safadi, held a meeting on 15 January where they strongly reaffirmed their firm opposition to the displacement of Palestinians from their territories, both in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The latest flare-up in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was sparked on 7 October 2023, when Hamas militants launched an attack on Israel, killing approximately 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages, according to Israeli authorities. Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has devastated Gaza, with the territory’s health ministry reporting over 47,000 deaths. Human rights groups have accused Israel of genocide and war crimes, accusations Israel denies.
A ceasefire implemented a week ago has provided a brief reprieve, allowing for the exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody. However, the long-term prospects for peace, and the fate of Gaza’s displaced population, remain uncertain
Comments (0)