Here’s Why Arab Countries Won’t take Refugees from Gaza
- Uri Pilichowski
- Jul 1
- 3 min read
Hosting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel at the White House this year, President Donald Trump declared that the United States should seize control of Gaza and permanently displace the entire Palestinian population of the devastated seaside enclave, becoming one of the most brazen ideas that any American leader has advanced in US-Israel history.
Trump said that all two million Palestinians from Gaza should be moved to countries like Egypt and Jordan because of the devastation wrought by Israel’s campaign against Hamas after the terrorist attack of Oct. 7, 2023.
“The U.S. will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too. We’ll own it and be responsible for disposing of unexploded munitions and rebuilding Gaza into a mecca for jobs and tourism. Sounding like the real estate developer he once was, Mr. Trump vowed to turn it into “the Riviera of the Middle East.”
What does Gaza relocation mean?
According to Trump’s plan, which country or countries could accept two million refugees?
President Trump has reasoned that he’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different location where Gazans may live in peace for a change. President Trump stated that he had spoken with King Abdullah II of Jordan about the possibility of his country accepting Palestinian refugees and had also discussed the issue with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
Arab states—particularly Egypt and Jordan—could benefit from essential economic incentives if persuaded to cooperate in implementing the initiative. For Egypt, for instance, accepting refugees in northern Sinai could contribute to regional development and strengthen the local economy. Jordan, meanwhile, faces demographic and political challenges that could destabilize the delicate balance between its Palestinian and Transjordanian populations.
However, with adequate funding and careful planning of designated residential areas for Gazan immigrants in the southern part of the kingdom, the initiative could present an opportunity to strengthen Jordan’s economy.
It was recently reported that the Trump administration had been working on a plan to permanently relocate up to 1 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya. The plan is under serious consideration, which the administration has discussed with Libya’s leadership. In exchange for the resettling of Palestinians, the administration would potentially release to Libya billions of dollars of funds that the US froze more than a decade ago.
Arab countries refuse to accept refugees
Jordan’s King Abdullah announced immediately after the October 7 attacks that Jordan and Egypt would not accept refugees from Gaza.
“That is a red line,” he said.
Similarly, Turkey and Qatar, both state sponsors of Hamas, are refusing to take refugees even as both countries express support for the Palestinians. Algeria, Kuwait, and Malaysia are openly siding with Hamas but have not said they would admit refugees.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi made his toughest remarks yet on the war about Palestinian refugees from Gaza, saying Israel’s military campaign was not just aimed at fighting Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, “but also an attempt to push the civilian inhabitants to ... migrate to Egypt.”
Arab hesitancy to accept Palestinians from Gaza
Displacement has been a major theme of Palestinian history. In the 1948 Israeli Independence War, an estimated 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled from what is now Israel. Palestinians refer to the event as the Nakba, Arabic for “catastrophe.” In the 1967 Six-Day War, when Israel seized the West Bank and Gaza Strip, 300,000 more Palestinians fled, mostly into Jordan. The refugees and their descendants now number nearly 6 million, most living in camps and communities in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. The diaspora has spread further, with many refugees building lives in the Gulf countries or the West.
Egypt fears history will repeat itself, and a large Palestinian refugee population from Gaza will end up staying for good. Their refusal is rooted in fear that Israel wants to force a permanent expulsion of Palestinians into their countries and nullify Palestinian demands for statehood. El-Sissi also said a mass exodus would risk bringing militants into Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, from where they might launch attacks on Israel, endangering the two countries’ 40-year-old peace treaty.
Jordan was one of the countries to receive large numbers of Palestinian refugees when at least 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes around Israel's foundation in 1948.
Jordan, which clashed with the PLO and expelled it under similar circumstances in 1970, already hosts more than 2 million Palestinian refugees, the majority of whom have been granted citizenship. Israeli ultranationalists have long suggested that Jordan be considered a Palestinian state so that Israel can keep the West Bank, which they view as the biblical heartland of the Jewish people. Jordan’s monarchy has vehemently rejected that scenario.
Uri Pilichowski is an author, speaker, and senior educator at institutions around the world.