By Betsy Klein and Lex Harvey, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump indicated Saturday that he had spoken with the king of Jordan about potentially building housing and moving more than 1 million Palestinians from Gaza to neighboring countries, a remarkable proposal from a sitting US president.

Trump said he asked Jordan’s Abdullah II, a key US partner in the region, to take in more Palestinians in a Saturday phone call.

“I said to him that I’d love you to take on more, because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now and it’s a mess, it’s a real mess,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Jordan’s state news agency, Petra, reported the call with Trump, but made no mention of relocating Palestinians. The kingdom is already home to more than 2.39 million registered Palestinian refugees, according to the UN.

Trump said he would like both Jordan and Egypt — which borders the battered enclave — to house people, and that he would speak to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi about the matter Sunday.

Trump, who noted there have been centuries-long conflicts in the region, said Saturday, “You’re talking about a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing.”

He continued: “I don’t know, something has to happen, but it’s literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything’s demolished, and people are dying there, so I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different location where I think they could maybe live in peace for a change.”

The president, a former property developer, said the potential housing “could be temporary” or “could be long term.”

Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a Sunday statement that it rejects any forced displacement of Palestinians. The ministry did not specifically mention Trump, but reiterated Egypt’s position against “the displacement of Palestinians from their land through forced eviction.”

“Such actions threaten stability, risk extending the conflict further in the region, and undermine opportunities for peace and coexistence,” the statement continued.

Jordan is committed to “ensuring that Palestinians remain on their land,” its minister of foreign affairs said in a statement Sunday.

“Our refusal of displacement is a steadfast position that will not change,” Ayman Safadi said. “Jordan is for Jordanians, and Palestine is for Palestinians.”

Safadi said that he looks forward to working with the new US administration and that Trump was “clear in stating that he wants to achieve peace in the region.”

The minister also reiterated Jordan’s “firm and unchanging” position favoring a two-state solution. Egypt’s Foreign Ministry, in its statement, also called on the international community to support reaching a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Amit Segal, an analyst with Israeli network Channel 12 News, cited Israeli officials and reported Trump’s move was “not a slip of the tongue but part of a much broader move than it seems, coordinated with Israel.”

A source familiar with the matter confirmed the reporting to CNN but gave no further details. CNN has reached out to the US State Department for comment.

Comments mark break with US policy

Trump’s comments come 15 months into the war between Israel and Hamas, which has reduced much of Gaza to rubble. Israeli airstrikes have damaged or destroyed around 60% of buildings, including schools and hospitals, and around 92% of homes, according to the UN.

Approximately 90% of Gaza residents have been displaced, and many have been forced to move repeatedly, some more than 10 times, according to the UN.

Trump’s comments appear to break with decades of US foreign policy, which has long emphasized a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine.

There has long been a fear in the region that Israel wants to push Palestinians out of Gaza into neighboring countries — a premise Israel rejects but one supported by far-right factions of its governing coalition.

El-Sisi criticized Israel’s move to evacuate more than a million residents from northern Gaza in October 2023, characterizing it as part of a larger plan to rid the entire area of Palestinians.

“The displacement or expulsion of Palestinians from the (Gaza) Strip into Egypt simply means that a similar situation will also take place — namely the expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank to Jordan,” Sisi said, adding there would be no point in discussing a Palestinian state, as “the land will be there, but the people won’t.”

Around the same time, King Abdullah called the idea of more Palestinian refugees moving to Jordan or Egypt a “red line.”

Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official, said Palestinians “will not accept any proposals or solutions” from Trump on leaving their homeland, even if they are “seemingly well-intentioned under the guise of reconstruction.”

Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, an independent Palestinian politician, said he “completely rejected” Trump’s comments.

“What the occupation has failed to achieve through its criminal bombardment and genocide in Gaza will not be implemented through political pressures,” Barghouti said in a statement, adding, “The conspiracy of ethnic cleansing will not succeed in Gaza or the West Bank.”

There are some 5.9 million Palestinian refugees worldwide, most of them descendants of people who fled with the creation of Israel in 1948.

Upon taking office Monday, Trump rescinded Biden-era sanctions against Israeli settlers deemed responsible for deadly violence in the occupied West Bank, in a move welcomed by Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who has argued strenuously for Israel to reestablish Jewish settlements in Gaza abandoned under an Israeli order in 2005.

Smotrich quickly endorsed Trump’s latest comments, saying, “the idea of helping (Gazans) find other places to start new, better lives is a great idea.”

Trump said earlier in the week that he “might” be able to have a role in rebuilding Gaza, praising it as having a “phenomenal location, on the sea” and “the best weather.”

The comments echoed remarks made in 2024 by his son-in-law Jared Kushner, who called the waterfront property in Gaza “very valuable” and suggested Israel should move Palestinians out of Gaza and “clean it up.”

Trump also confirmed he had lifted a Biden-era hold on the provision of 2,000-pound bombs for Israel.

“We released them today and they’ll have them. They paid for them and they’ve been waiting for them for a long time,” he told reporters.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Ibrahim Dahman, Dana Karni, Sophie Tanno, Mounira Elsamra and Abeer Salman contributed to this report.

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