As the two nations continue to develop a strategy to reconstruct Gaza without forcing the Palestinians to leave, Egypt’s president welcomed Jordan’s Crown Prince to Cairo on Sunday.
Al Hussein bin Abdullah II and President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi discussed the most recent events in the Palestinian territories, the attempts to carry out the ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, the exchange of hostages and detainees, and the availability of humanitarian supplies.
Al Hussein’s visit followed a meeting between Jordan’s King Abdullah II and U.S. President Donald Trump last week, during which Trump reaffirmed his commitment to permanently remove the more than 2 million Palestinians from Gaza and to forbid their return.
At one point, Trump said he may threaten to stop U.S. funding to Egypt and Jordan unless they take in Palestinians.
Egypt will host an Arab summit on Feb. 27 and is working with other countries on a counterproposal that would allow for Gaza to be rebuilt without removing its population.
Human rights groups say the expulsion of Palestinians would likely violate international law.
Egypt has warned that any mass influx of Palestinians from Gaza would undermine its nearly half-century peace treaty with Israel, a cornerstone of U.S. influence in the region.
Arab and Muslim countries have conditioned any support for postwar Gaza on a return to Palestinian governance with a pathway to statehood in Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem, territories that Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war.
Israel has ruled out a Palestinian state and any role in Gaza for the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, whose forces were driven out when Hamas seized power there in 2007.
