Jordan's King Offers To Take Some Palestinians As Trump Pushes Plan To Take Over War-Torn Strip

As President Donald Trump continues to push a plan for the United States to take control of Gaza and have its Palestinian residents relocate, Jordan's leader made an offer to take a small number of them.

At the White House, Jordan's King Abdullah II said he would take about 2,000 Palestinian children with pressing medical needs.

That is a tiny fraction of the 2 million residents of the war-torn area.

Trump called the offer a "beautiful gesture" and said he believed "99%" that something could be worked out with Egypt, according to NBC News.

Abdullah didn't commit to taking in a larger number of refugees and said he would refrain from saying more at the moment.

Trump made the surprising announcement that he planned to take control of Gaza while speaking to reporters alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House last week.

He proclaimed that the war-torn strip of land on the Mediterranean coast could be one of the "greatest and most spectacular developments of its kind on Earth."

He added that Palestinians would by then be "resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities" and they would "have a chance to be happy, safe, and free."

He suggested that Egypt and Jordan take the displaced Palestinians.

Lawmakers worldwide have condemned Trump's plan and accused the president of "ethnic cleansing."

Gaza has been devastated by more than a year of Israeli attacks that were launched in response to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that left more than 1,200 dead and hundreds of people kidnapped into Gaza.