King Abdullah of Jordan announced that his country would immediately accept 2,000 cancer-stricken or malnourished Palestinian children from the Gaza Strip during a White House sit-down with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday.
In turn, Mr Trump pressed home his plan for the United States to “own” Gaza, dismissing the suggestion that relocating two million Palestinian people is tantamount to ethnic cleansing.
Praising his guest’s announcement as a “beautiful gesture,” Mr Trump also predicted that Hamas would not meet the stipulated deadline of noon on Saturday for the release of Israeli hostages in captivity since the attacks on October 7th, 2023, but stopped short of reiterating his threat to on Monday to “let hell break loose” if the timeline is not met.
“I have looked at people coming out of the hostage situation and it is horrible,” he said.
“They are emaciated. They looked like Holocaust survivors. They are in rough shape. And I think the reason that Hamas is playing so cute is that they saw the reaction to the people who came out and I think they want time.
“Because the people they have living are in such bad shape. They are sending the healthiest people out because they don’t want to send the least healthy out and there was uproar when they saw the people from yesterday. They either have them out by Saturday at 12 o’clock or all bets are off.”
Mr Trump’s view was backed up by Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who also threatened to end the ceasefire if hostages are not released by noon on Saturday, leaving the situation in Gaza in a fragile state.
“If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon – the ceasefire will end and the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] will return to intense fighting until Hamas is finally defeated,” Mr Netanyahu said.
The state visit marks the first official hosting of a Middle East leader since Mr Trump was sworn in on January 20th.
King Abdullah emphasised the warm relationship between the countries and “the personal relationship of friendship and trust between the two of us”.
But he remained circumspect when asked about Mr Trump’s grand plan to turn Gaza into “the Riviera of the Middle East” by resettling residents and redeveloping the Strip.
King Abdullah referred to the upcoming Middle East summit to discuss what he termed as “new and dangerous developments” following the declaration of Mr Trump’s Gaza plan.
“Mr president, I truly believe that with all the challenges we have in the Middle East I finally see somebody that can take us across the finish line to bring stability and peace and prosperity to all of us in the region."
He added: “I think we have to keep in mind that there is a plan for Egypt and the Arab countries. The point is, how do we make this work for everybody?”
In private, the Jordanian leader was expected to argue the impossibility of Mr Trump’s Gaza plan from his perspective. Over half of the king’s 12 million subjects are thought to be of Palestinian descent. Accepting an influx of refugees displaced from Gaza would threaten the survival of his family rule.
Jordan has already taken in some 700,000 refugees in the aftermath of the Syrian civil war. The reliance on the United States for some $1.5 billion in foreign aid leaves them open to the threat of that aid being withheld.
During the official remarks, Mr Trump again departed from the White House line by envisaging a future in which the Palestinian people would be permanently relocated elsewhere, identifying “a parcel of land in Jordan, a parcel of land in Egypt.
“They only want to be on the Gaza Strip because they have no alternative. They don’t know anything else,” he said.
Mr Trump ignored the Hamas statement, delivered by senior official Sami Abu Zuhri, which warned that the current agreement “must be respected by both parties and that “the language of threats has no value and only complicates matters”.
“I don’t think they [Hamas] are going to make the deadline, personally,” Mr Trump said. “I think they want to play tough guy. Hamas are bullies. The weakest people are bullies.”
