US President Donald Trump has said he wants Egypt and Jordan to take in Palestinians from Gaza.Trump said he had made the request to Jordan’s King Abdullah and planned to ask Egypt’s president too.

Describing Gaza as a “demolition site”, Trump said: “You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing”. He added that the move “could be temporary” or “could be long-term”.

Meanwhile, Hamas has vowed to oppose any such action, and the comments will likely outrage Palestinians in Gaza, for whom it is their home. Jordan’s foreign minister said the kingdom was “firm and unwavering” in its rejection of displacing Palestinians.

Most of Gaza’s two million residents have been displaced in the 15 months of war with Israel, which has flattened much of Gaza’s infrastructure.

The United Nations has previously estimated that 60% of structures across Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, and it could take decades to rebuild.

More than two million Palestinian refugees, most of whom have been granted citizenship, live in Jordan, according to the UN. They are descendants of some of the approximately 750,000 Palestinians who fled or were forced from their homes in the conflicts surrounding the formation of Israel in 1948.

Thousands of Palestinians have fled to Egypt since the war with Israel began, but they are not recognised there as refugees.

In October 2023, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he rejected any forced displacement of Palestinians into the Sinai peninsula, and that the only solution was an independent state for Palestinians.