By ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS and VIVIAN YEE NYTimes News Service
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A suggestion by President Donald Trump to “clean out” the Gaza Strip and ask Egypt and Jordan to take in more Palestinians raised new questions Sunday about United States policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and two of its most important allies in the Middle East.

Trump’s comments appeared to echo the wishes of the Israeli far right that Palestinians be encouraged to leave Gaza — an idea that goes to the heart of Palestinian fears that they will be driven from their remaining homelands, and one that is likely to be rejected by Egypt and Jordan. “You’re talking about probably a million-and-a-half people, and we just clean out that whole thing,” Trump said of Gaza on Saturday. “I don’t know. Something has to happen, but it’s literally a demolition site right now.” Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he had spoken to King Abdullah II of Jordan, saying, “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 would also like Egypt to take in more Palestinians and that he would speak to the country’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.

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Trump’s suggestion was rejected Sunday by Hamas, the militant group that runs Gaza.

“The Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip have endured death and destruction over 15 months in one of humanity’s greatest crimes of the 21st century, simply to stay on their land and homeland,” said Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, referring to the war that started with the Hamas-led attack on Israel in 2023. “Therefore, they will not accept any proposals or solutions, even if seemingly well-intentioned under the guise of reconstruction, as proposed by U.S. President Trump.”

But the idea appeared to be welcomed by hard-line Israeli politicians.

Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right finance minister in the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, posted a statement on the social platform X on Sunday that seemed to refer to Trump’s comments, although he did not mention Trump.

“After 76 years in which most of the population of Gaza was held by force under harsh conditions to maintain the ambition to destroy the State of Israel, the idea of ​​helping them find other places to start a new, good life is a great idea,” he said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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