Trump stands by his Gaza plan in meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah
President Donald Trump made no attempt Tuesday to soften his proposal to relocate Palestinians in Gaza and redevelop the land into premium housing, even as his guest in the Oval Office, King Abdullah II of Jordan, suggested the Arab world was opposed.
Trump repeated his view that Palestinians should be moved out of the devastated strip to “parcels” in third countries, including Jordan, despite the objections of those countries’ leaders.
And the president brushed aside questions about what authority the US might wield to take control of the Palestinian enclave.
“It’s not a complex thing to do. And with the United States being in control of that piece of land, a fairly large piece of land, you’re going to have stability in the Middle East for the first time,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
Abdullah, seated next to Trump, did not outright reject the president’s idea. But his discomfort with the plan was obvious as he indicated alternate proposals for Gaza would be forthcoming.
“I think we have to keep in mind, there is a plan from Egypt and the Arab countries,” Abdullah said. “I think the point is, how do we make this work in a way that is good for everybody?” He later advised, “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
In a statement after their meeting, Abdullah was more direct. “I reiterated Jordan’s steadfast position against the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. This is the unified Arab position. Rebuilding Gaza without displacing the Palestinians and addressing the dire humanitarian situation should be the priority for all,” he wrote on X.
But Trump’s comments made obvious he’s serious about moving forward with the plan he revealed one week ago.
“We’re going to have it, we’re going to keep it, and we’re going to make sure that there’s going to be peace and there’s not going to be any problem, and nobody’s going to question it, and we’re going to run it very properly,” Trump said.
“We’re going to take it. We’re going to hold it. We’re going to cherish it,” Trump said of Gaza.
His plans to “own” the Strip have injected yet more uncertainty into the shaky ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
Sitting next to Abdullah, the president held to his comments, made the day before in the Oval Office, that “all hell is going to break out” if Hamas does not release all hostages from Gaza by noon on Saturday.
“And you know, I have a Saturday deadline, and I don’t think they’re going to make the deadline personally,” Trump said.
He added that “all bets are off” in regard to the ceasefire deal if Hamas does not release the hostages by then.
Looking for a deal
A week after proposing his brazen new plan to redevelop Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East,” Trump appears intent on negotiating his far-fetched plan into reality.
In this case, the deal he’s envisioning would apparently involve Jordan and Egypt accepting millions of new Palestinian refugees — over their consistent objections — so Trump can clear the rubble from the demolished Gaza Strip, construct new glass towers with Mediterranean views and invite “the world’s people” to move in.
“We’re going to be able to work something, and I know we’ll be able to work something also with, I believe, not, not 100%, but 99% we’re going to work out something with Egypt,” Trump said on Tuesday.
As leverage, Trump is wielding the billions of dollars in American assistance provided to Jordan and Egypt every year, without which those countries could face dire financial problems.
“Yeah, maybe, sure why not?” Trump responded in the Oval Office on Monday evening when asked if he would hold back American aid to Jordan and Egypt. “If they don’t, I would conceivably withhold aid, yes.”
A day later, he seemed less sure that cutting aid was the best path.
“No, I think we’ll do something. I don’t have to threaten with money,” Trump said from the Oval Office on Tuesday. “I think we’re above that.”
Cairo and Amman are not without leverage of their own: Both closely align their security policies with Washington, and both have played a role in protecting Israel in the past — including last year, when Jordan helped shoot down a barrage of Iranian missiles fired toward Israel. Even some US officials worry forcing Egypt and Jordan to accept new Palestinian refugees, if that’s even possible, could seriously destabilize two reliable security partners.
“I do think he’ll take, and I think other countries will take also,” Trump said a day ahead of his meeting with Abdullah. “They have good hearts.”
The question for Abdullah, along with Egyptian officials visiting Washington this week, is whether Trump’s maximalist proposal for the troubled enclave is serious, or whether it is merely a starting point for some alternative plan to bring peace and stability to the area.
Palestinians walk through destruction caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive in Jabalya, Gaza, on February 6.
Abdel Kareem Hana/AP
Some Trump officials have suggested the latter, even if they are careful to insist the president isn’t bluffing when discussing his audacious idea.
“Come to the table with your plan if you don’t like his plan,” Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz said during an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, suggesting the White House has received “all kinds of outreach” since Trump’s comments.
At its root, US officials said, Trump’s suggestion was intended in part to spur action on an issue he has viewed as moribund, with no other nations offering reasonable solutions for how to rebuild an area that has been obliterated by Israeli bombardment following Hamas’ October 7, 2023, terrorist attacks.
Still, it is debatable whether, in Trump’s mind, there exists a distinction between serious proposal and negotiating tactic. Nothing he has said about the Gaza plan in the week since he first uttered it aloud, at a news conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, suggests it is anything but an earnest strategy, even if statements by some of his top officials suggested otherwise.
In fact, in the days before Abdullah’s arrival, Trump did nothing to soften what has for many in the region been the most troubling aspect of his proposal: that Palestinians who leave Gaza under his plan would not be permitted to return.
“No, they wouldn’t,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News when asked whether the Palestinians would have a right to return to Gaza. “Because they will have much better housing. Much better – in other words, I’m talking about building a permanent place for them.”
Trump leaning on Jordan and Egypt
So far, Trump seems set on finding that “permanent place” in Jordan and Egypt, even though leaders in both those countries swiftly rejected the plan last week.
Egypt, which is concerned about an influx of Palestinians destabilizing its Sinai region, said on Sunday that it will convene an “emergency” Arab League summit on February 28 in Cairo to discuss “new and dangerous developments” in the Palestinian issue.
In Jordan, where a large proportion of the population is of Palestinian descent, the issue holds particular resonance. The country absorbed successive waves of Palestinian refugees, starting in 1948 during the war that led to Israel’s creation.
In 1970, armed Palestinian factions tried to seize control of the country from King Abdullah’s father Hussein, a brief but violent conflict known as “Black September.” Memories of the incident haven’t faded more than 50 years later, not least from the country’s current king, as the country grapples with a delicate demographic balance between its Palestinian and native Jordanian populations.
A tank of the Palestinian Liberation Army takes position on September 24, 1970, during fighting between the Jordanian army and Palestinian Fedayeens in the so-called Black September events.
AFP/Getty Images
At a moment when popular dissatisfaction with the king is growing, the question of how to proceed could become an existential one, both for Abdullah and for his US-focused geopolitics.
A destabilized Jordan would prove deeply problematic both for the United States and Israel. Already, some opposition figures in Jordan have called for the kingdom to turn its attention away from the US and toward China, Russia or wealthy Arab states.
All that complicates Trump’s plan to move more than a million Palestinian refugees there. Yet so far, he hasn’t acknowledged those difficulties, confident instead that he will be able to negotiate some workable solution.
“I have a feeling that despite them saying no, I have a feeling that the king in Jordan and that the general — president — but that the general in Egypt will open their hearts and will give us the kind of land that we need to get this done,” Trump said last week, referring in the latter instance to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, a former military officer.
Tuesday’s meeting was not the first conversation between Trump and Abdullah about accepting more Palestinian refugees.
“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,’” Trump told reporters after he spoke by phone to the Jordanian leader late last month.
At the time, Trump had not revealed publicly his new plan to take “long-term ownership” of the strip. Trump officials did not circulate his plan with Jordanian or Egyptian officials before the president announced it from the East Room.
And while Trump had been discussing his idea with aides for several days, it was not written down before it appeared in his prepared remarks alongside Netanyahu last Tuesday.
An Arab government official who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the matter told CNN that it’s still unclear if the US has fully worked through the details of Trump’s plan. The official said that Arab officials will discuss the matter with the Trump administration and propose ideas for Gaza’s future that would not involve expelling its Palestinian residents.
How that can be reconciled with Trump’s own idea isn’t clear.
This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.
Source: CNN
Ceasefire ‘will end’ if Hamas does not return hostages by Saturday, Netanyahu says
It’s only three weeks into a fragile ceasefire, and Israel and Hamas are each ratcheting up allegations that the other party has violated the deal.
So far, 16 out of 33 hostages scheduled for release in the current phase of the agreement have been freed by Hamas, and 656 Palestinian prisoners from a list of nearly 2,000 have been released by Israel. But the weekly exchanges may now be disrupted after Hamas accused Israel of violating the agreement and said it would postpone Saturday’s hostage release “until further notice.”
Israel has hit back, with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying late Tuesday that the Gaza ceasefire will end if Hamas does not release hostages as planned on Saturday.
“If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon – the ceasefire will end, and the IDF will return to intense fighting until Hamas is completely defeated,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.
US President Donald Trump, whose envoy helped mediate the agreement along with officials from Egypt and Qatar, has suggested dismissing the multi-staged approach of the deal altogether and giving Hamas an ultimatum to release all the hostages at once.
Here’s what each side is saying, and where the deal could go from here:
Hamas says Israel violated the deal
On Monday, Hamas threatened to postpone the next hostage release, accusing Israel of violating the ceasefire deal by targeting Palestinians with gunfire in various parts of Gaza, delaying the return of displaced people to the heavily bombarded north, and not allowing the agreed humanitarian aid to enter the enclave.
The militant group also accused Israel of delaying the entry of essential medicines and hospital supplies, as well as not allowing tents, prefabricated houses, fuel, or rubble-removing machines into Gaza.
On Tuesday, the Gaza health ministry said that 92 people in the enclave had been killed in Israeli military operations since the ceasefire came into effect.
CNN has asked Israeli authorities for comment on the allegations regarding casualties and disrupted aid.
A diplomat with knowledge of the ceasefire talks told CNN that the United Nations, Qatar and other countries had requested to deliver temporary shelters to Gaza but Israel turned them down. CNN has reached out to Israeli officials regarding the claim.
Tents sheltering displaced Palestinians are erected in the yard of a secondary school in the north of Gaza City on February 10, 2025, amid the current ceasefire deal.
Bashar Taleb/AFP/Getty Images
Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing, said in a social media post on Monday: “We affirm our commitment to the terms of the agreement as long as the occupation commits to them.”
In a later statement, Hamas added that there was still an opportunity for the release to go forward as planned, saying that Israel has sufficient time “to fulfill its obligations.”
Israel says delay is ‘complete violation’ of deal
Hamas’ postponement is a “complete violation of the ceasefire agreement and the deal to release the hostages,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Monday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a meeting with his political and security cabinet on Tuesday, where they expected next steps.
Katz said he instructed the military to “prepare at the highest level of alert for any possible scenario in Gaza.” The Israeli military also said it was raising the level of readiness in southern Israel and that it would reinforce the area to enhance its “readiness for various scenarios.”
A woman carries an Israeli flag in Jerusalem next to a banner with an image of Trump, during a demonstration calling for the immediate return of hostages on February 11.
Ronen Zvulun/Reuters
Those announcements also come after Israeli forces opened fire on Sunday in the eastern areas of Gaza City, close to the Gaza border, killing three Palestinians, Palestinian authorities said. The incident happened close to the border fence near Nahal Oz, an Israeli kibbutz, or agricultural commune. Following that incident, Katz said: “Anyone who enters the buffer zone, their blood is on their own head – zero tolerance for anyone who threatens IDF (Israel Defense Forces) forces or the fence area and communities.”
Doubts about the future of the deal also follow Israel’s condemnation of the gaunt, frail appearance of the hostages released last week as “shocking.” Many of the remaining Israeli hostages are believed to be in even worse condition, Israeli government officials told CNN on Tuesday.
What did Trump say?
President Trump has urged Israel to “let all hell break out” and cancel the ceasefire and hostages deal if Hamas does not return those still being held in Gaza by Saturday.
“As far as I’m concerned, if all of the hostages aren’t returned by Saturday at 12 o’clock – I think it’s an appropriate time – I would say, cancel it and all bets are off and let hell break out,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday.
Trump added that all hostages ought to be returned, not two or three “in drips and drabs,” which is the phased manner of releases outlined in the deal.
Pressed on what “all hell” might entail in Gaza, Trump said, “You’ll find out, and they’ll find out – Hamas will find out what I mean.”
Trump and his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff are part of the team that helped broker the ceasefire, which was finalized with cooperation between the Biden and Trump camps just before the new administration took office.
The US president went on to say that Palestinians would not have a right to return to Gaza under his plan to take US ownership of the enclave and rebuild it.
Trump also told reporters on Monday: “I think a lot of the hostages are dead.” More than 30 of the hostages are dead, according to Israel.
On Tuesday, during a meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah, Trrump expressed doubt as to whether Hamas would meet the Saturday deadline.
How likely is the ceasefire to hold?
In short, no one knows.
It took about a year of negotiations to reach the current deal. The first ceasefire, in November 2023, lasted about a week.
The current agreement is set up to progress in three distinct phases, the first of which is already halfway through.
As well as the release of 16 hostages so far, phase one has seen the entry of more humanitarian aid and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from parts of Gaza. The Israeli military has retained its presence along Gaza’s borders with Egypt and Israel.
Israel has to date released around a third of the nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners agreed for the exchange, some of them held without charge, and others facing life sentences.
Following Israel’s withdrawal from a key militarized zone dividing Gaza, Palestinians began returning to what’s left of their homes in the heavily bombarded north. The “overwhelming destruction of homes and communities in the north” has left people without viable shelter, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which has said “the need for food, water, tents and shelter materials in that area remains critical.”
This aerial view shows displaced Palestinians returning to the war-devastated Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza on January 19, 2025.
Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP/Getty Images
Meanwhile, negotiations for the second and third phases have barely started.
An Israeli delegation was sent to Doha, Qatar, on Sunday, but an Israeli official told CNN that the team would not be discussing the second phase of the deal, adding that Netanyahu was planning separately to hold “a security-political cabinet meeting” this week regarding the second phase.
Netanyahu waited until last weekend – one week after a deadline for further ceasefire talks – to send his delegation to Qatar. Israeli media has speculated that he is simply running out the clock until phase one of the deal expires on March 1.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a key member of Netanyahu’s coalition, has threatened to quit the government if Israel doesn’t return to war after the first phase of the truce.
Qatari and Egyptian mediators are engaging with Israel and Hamas to solve “current issues” and ensure adherence to the agreement, a diplomatic source familiar with the matter told CNN.
CNN’s Jeremy Diamond, Abeer Salman, Kareem Khadder, Lauren Izso, Mostafa Salem, Becky Anderson, Mick Krever, Kevin Liptak, Donald Judd, Dana Karni and Mohammed Tawfeeq contributed to reporting.
Source: CNN