Trump's Palestinian Refugee Idea Falls Flat With Jordan And Confounds A Senate Ally

President Donald Trump's push to have Egypt and Jordan take in large numbers of Palestinian refugees from besieged Gaza fell flat with those countries' governments and left a key congressional ally in Washington perplexed on Sunday.

Fighting that broke out in the territory after ruling Hamas attacked Israel in October 2023 is paused due to a fragile ceasefire , but much of Gaza's population has been left largely homeless by an Israeli military campaign . Trump told reporters Saturday aboard Air Force One that moving some 1.5 million people away from Gaza might mean that "we just clean out that whole thing."

Trump relayed what he told Jordan's King Abdullah when the two held a call earlier Saturday: "I said to him, 'I'd love for you to take on more because I'm looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now, and it's a mess.'"

He said he was making a similar appeal to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi during a conversation they were having while Trump was at his Doral resort in Florida on Sunday. Trump said he would "like Egypt to take people and I'd like Jordan to take people."

Egypt and Jordan, along with the Palestinians, worry that Israel would never allow them to return to Gaza once they have left. Both Egypt and Jordan also have perpetually struggling economies and their governments, as well as those of other Arab states, fear massive destabilization of their own countries and the region from any such influx of refugees.