On 21st March, Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi stated that his nation was prepared to temporarily house half a million people who will be removed from the Gaza Strip. The report claimed that a city in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula would be given to the Gazans. According to reports, the Egyptian leader was among those who attended a symposium on the Middle East issue that was conducted in Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh.
The article conveyed that Jordan, who has previously taken a strong stand against such a move, is concerned about the temporary relocation. The United States President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a press conference at the White House in Washington at the beginning of February to reveal the former’s intentions regarding Gaza. The proposal called for the United States to occupy the Gaza Strip and to deport Gazans to nearby Arab nations like Egypt and Jordan. The US president stated in an interview with Fox News later in February that he would “recommend” his Gaza plan but would not impose it.
Egypt unveiled its $53 billion rehabilitation plan for Gaza at the beginning of March. The proposal, agreed by the Arab summit, opposed that of Trump and rejected the suggestion to remove Palestinians from the area. During a five-year gradual reconstruction of Gaza, with an emphasis on restoring housing, infrastructure and basic services, the plan would permit Palestinians to stay in Gaza. With remarks that “nobody is expelling any Palestinians from Gaza” at a White House meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin later in March, Trump seemed to rescind his plan. It was later welcomed by Egypt’s foreign ministry. Notably, now opening the border crossings between Sinai and Gaza to individuals who want to depart would be necessary for this to happen.
Earlier, Trump suggested a mass exodus of Palestinians from Gaza to neighbouring Arab nations like Jordan and Egypt, on 25th January. He added that he wants to “clean out that whole thing” and called Gaza a “demolition site.” Following a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu on 5th February, Trump declared in a joint press conference that the US would occupy the Gaza Strip and rebuild it as a developed region where people could live in peace. After the US assumes control, he continued, the Gaza Strip might turn into the Middle East’s Riviera. The Egyptian plan for rebuilding Gaza was then rejected by the United States after it was endorsed by Arab nations, at a Cairo meeting on 4th March.
Moreover, Jordan’s King Abdullah II resisted the US president’s plan to seize Gaza and expatriate its people but added that his nation would take in about 2,000 sick youngsters from the war-torn area, in February. “I reiterated Jordan’s steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This is the unified Arab position. Rebuilding Gaza without displacing the Palestinians and addressing the dire humanitarian situation should be the priority for all,” he declared on social media.
King Abdullah warned earlier in the same month that Trump’s plan to relocate Palestinians from Gaza to Jordan is a recipe for radicalism that will destabilize the Middle East, endanger the kingdom’s peace with Israel and even pose a threat to the nation’s future. Marwan Muasher, a former Jordanian foreign minister stated, “This is existential. There is very strong public opposition, and it’s not something Jordan can entertain. This is not an economic or a security issue for Jordan, it’s an identity issue.” He helped negotiate Jordan’s 1994 peace treaty with the Jewish state.
On 25th July 1994, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Jordanian King Hussein bin Talal and US President Clinton signed the Washington Declaration in Washington, DC (District of Columbia). According to the Declaration, Israel and Jordan declared their intention to terminate their formal state of enmity and begin negotiations to bring about a fair and sustainable peace, as well as an “end to bloodshed and sorrow.” It officially put an end to the conflict that had been going on between the two countries in West Asia since 1948.
