Egypt will not be swayed to take in Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, US officials in the region have told the White House in recent days as they brace for the Trump administration to ramp up pressure on Cairo, Middle East Eye can reveal.
Trump has also said that Jordan will take in Palestinians ahead of King Abdullah II’s visit to Washington next week.
The growing divide between diplomats and the White House has heightened tensions, pitting President Donald Trump and his closest advisers against career diplomats in the region, who are ferrying messages to Arab officials.
In the case of Egypt, US officials warned the White House that the controversial proposal could destabilise a close ally and that Egypt would not be susceptible to financial incentives, a senior US diplomat in the region told MEE.
The notion that Palestinians can be moved to Egypt, Jordan or any third country is widely regarded as ethnic cleansing of the besieged enclave and would likely violate international law.
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Another mid-level US diplomat in the region working on this issue told MEE that the White House appeared “tone deaf” to the assessments of US diplomats and remained intent on pursuing the plan to send Palestinians to Egypt.
Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised the topic in a phone call with his Egyptian counterpart, Badr Abdelatty, one of the officials told MEE.
Both US officials say they expect the rift between US embassies in the region and the White House to widen following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with Trump on Tuesday.
‘Pure demolition site’
Ahead of his meeting with Netanyahu at the White House, Trump reiterated his stance on Gaza, calling it a “demolition site” and saying that the best solution would be to “just clean out that whole thing”.
“It’s a pure demolition site. If we could find the right piece of land, or numerous pieces of land, and build them some really nice places with plenty of money in the area, that’s for sure. I think that would be a lot better than going back to Gaza,” he told reporters.
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Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, said on Tuesday that “solving where people will go” had become a “big issue”. Trump had initially said Egypt could take in refugees temporarily, but Witkoff indicated otherwise.
“It is unfair to have explained to Palestinians that they might be back in five years. That’s just preposterous,” he said.
Both Trump and members of his administration said on Tuesday that it would take 10 to 15 years to rebuild Gaza, with Trump saying that it is “inhumane” to make people live in a place that’s “uninhabitable”.
Israel has made no secret of its desire for Egypt to accept Palestinian refugees from Gaza following its offensive on the enclave in response to the Hamas-led 7 October attacks.
Egyptian officials at the time said accepting forcibly displaced Palestinians was a “red line”, and the discussion faded.
However, the ceasefire has shifted Israel’s priorities and the Trump administration’s public backing of the idea has emboldened Israel’s leadership. Trump’s son-in-law and former adviser, Jared Kushner, first proposed the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza in March 2024.
Egyptian officials remain publicly resolute in their refusal to accept Palestinians. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said last week that it was “an injustice that we cannot take part in”.
Egypt braced for cut in military aid
An Egyptian diplomat told MEE that Cairo is taking Trump’s rhetoric seriously and is preparing for the possibility that the $1.3bn in annual US security assistance could be suspended if the Trump administration attempts to use it as leverage.
Trump has generally maintained good relations with Sisi, whom he famously referred to as his “favourite dictator” in 2019.
According to the diplomat, Sisi has actually benefited from Trump’s rhetoric, as it has allowed him to embrace the popular Palestinian cause at a time when Egypt is struggling with debilitating economic crises.
The country has been grappling with currency devaluation and inflation. Last year, it secured a $7.6bn aid package from the European Union, split between grants and favourable loans.
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Egyptian security services organised rare protests at the Rafah border crossing with Gaza on Friday in a show of defiance against Trump’s plea. The protests came two days after the US ambassador to Egypt, Herro Mustafa Garg, a career diplomat, visited the crossing.
Egypt has already taken in about 200,000 Palestinians from Gaza since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, the source said. A neighbourhood referred to as “Little Gaza” has sprung up in Cairo.
The Palestinian ambassador in Cairo put the official number lower, saying between 80,000 and 100,000 Palestinians had entered Egypt.
The Egyptian diplomat also told MEE that Cairo is considering organising protests in front of the US embassy as well.
Sisi rules Egypt with an iron fist and popular protests are not tolerated.
Sisi came to power in a 2013 coup that toppled Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi.
“If I were to ask this of the Egyptian people, all of them would take to the streets to say ‘no’,” Sisi said last week.
One Egyptian official with knowledge of the matter told MEE that while Sisi and his closest advisors have privately entertained the idea of accepting more Palestinians from Gaza, Egypt’s military establishment is adamantly opposed to any discussion.
