Familiar with the efforts, the Trump administration and Israeli ties with the Sudan and Somalia are also interested in Syria as a potential place for Syria to relocate Palestinians from Gaza.
The idea of Palestine’s resettlement in another country is one of several options the Trump team is chewing on, part of the larger goal of the U.S. president in Gaza’s war with Hamas and rebuilding the destroyed Palestinian enclave.
“No one expels any Palestinians,” President Trump said Wednesday. At the time, the Irish prime minister was asked by a U.S. reporter at the Oval Office meeting of the two leaders about the president’s controversial remarks in February, when he suggested hiring all-power rebuilding in Gaza.
Mr. Trump made a remark with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a February 4 press conference, saying Gaza may be “The Riviera of the Middle East.“
“We should take the humanitarian heart to other countries of interest, many of whom want to do so and build various fields that will eventually be occupied by the 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza, ending death and destruction,” Trump said.
Two diplomatic sources confirmed to CBS News that Israeli and U.S. officials had communicated with Sudan and Somalia. The far-right Israeli government officials have called for the Palestinians to move from the enclave. Mr. Trump’s remarks only motivate Israel to engage with other countries in order to explore opportunities for Palestine resettlement, a source said.
Three familiar with Mr. Trump’s idea of moving Gazans to another country told CBS News that his administration and Israel are also interested in Syria. A source familiar with Trump’s administration’s Middle East policy said the administration has tried to preach to Syria’s new interim administration through third-party interlocutors. Another source in the region told CBS News that the Syrian government is approaching, but it is not clear whether Syria has any response to propaganda.
A senior Syrian official told CBS News they were not aware of any Israel or the U.S. relocating Gaza people to the government.
“Neither the U.S. government nor the Israeli authorities contacted the Somali government on any proposal to move Palestinians to Somalia,” said Dahir Hassan, Somalia’s ambassador to the United States. Hassan also cited concerns that “this dissemination of unverified information could recruit propaganda for extremist groups such as ISIS and Al Shabaab, which could exacerbate security challenges in the region.”
The Sudanese government has not responded to a request for comment from CBS News.
Syria’s fledgling provisional government is only three months old Overthrow Bashar al-Assad For decades, his cruel regime held the iron fist of the Syrian people. The Northeast African country of Arabia, Sudan, is currently involved in the civil war and refugee crisis, and is suffering from many famines. Over the past two decades, thousands of Sudanese refugees have sought asylum in Israel until they are detained in desert-based detention in the country, or live without any formal status. The East African country Somalia is a fragile, formerly defeated country, and the radical Islamic group, Al-Shabaab, continues to launch a deadly rebellion.
Since the February 4 press conference, Mr. Trump has suggested that Palestinians have the option to leave or not, but also suggests that their departure from Gaza may be permanent. exist Fox News Interview A few days later, he said: “We will build beautiful communities, safe communities, maybe five, six, maybe two. But we will build safe communities (Palestinians) where they are.” In the same interview, he explain That Palestinian has no right to return to Gaza under his plan because the enclave is “unhabitable” and will not return to Gaza in the next few years.
The United Nations reported in January that more than 90% of Gaza’s housing units were damaged or destroyed and 1.9 million Gaza civilians were displaced. The Gaza Ministry of Health said more than 48,000 Palestinians were killed in the war between Israel and Hamas, which began with the terrorist attack on October 7, 2023, in which Hamas killed more than 1,000 Israelis and killed about 100 hostages.
Several Arab governments, the United Nations and some Democratic lawmakers have quickly condemned Mr. Trump’s idea of emptying Gaza for ethnic cleansing with certain ideas. Instead, Arab leaders endorsed Gaza’s alternative Egyptian post-war construction plan last week, but both the Trump administration and Israel Quick rejection Again, the Gaza Strip is not habitable.
Former President Joe Biden’s administration regularly sends U.S. officials to meet with the new Syrian government in Damascus to consult Mr. Trump’s inauguration. Syria’s new leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, quickly condemned Mr. Trump’s remarks in February, saying the U.S. president’s plan was “a serious crime that ultimately failed.” It is unclear what the Trump administration’s overall policy towards the new Syrian government is.
“The Trump administration should interact directly with the new government in Damascus, especially after the agreement between Damascus and the SDF (the Syrian Democratic Forces of the United States Allied Forces) and ensure that Iran will never again have a foothold in Syria to achieve the true, lasting ISIS failure and to rule in a way that is long-term withdrawal with normal administration, until rule, to withdraw untimely. The Syrian Emergency Working Group, an advocacy and humanitarian organization, told CBS News.
Since December, Israel has carried out extensive air strikes in Syria, which are said about the weapons sites of the Assad regime and seized territory in the buffer zone between the two countries. Over the past week, Israel has attacked the Damascus suburbs, saying it is occupying the headquarters of the Islamic Jihad, an Iran-backed militant group that has a huge foothold in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
A State Department spokesman handed it to the Israeli government and told CBS News that the Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff “continues tirelessly to extend the first phase (the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement), or to raise the attitude of the second phase in the second phase.
The State Department also mentioned Witkoff’s remarks in a February Fox News interview, saying: “We need to explore new policy prescriptions for ultimately better lives for Gaza and Palestinians.”
Witkov also suggested in the same Fox interview that the entire Palestinian population in Gaza might go to other Arab countries in the Middle East and other countries outside the region: “I think the president’s solution is: how we solve where 2 million people can go, and I think the obvious answer is: in some ways, in some ways, in some ways, in some ways, in some ways, in some ways, in some ways, in some ways, in some ways, our efforts are an effort; you”.
On Sunday, Margaret Brennan, the host of “Facing the Country”, asked if the Trump administration is talking with other countries about relocating 2 million Palestinians in Gaza Vickov said again “I think we are exploring Margaret, all the alternatives and options that will lead to a better life for the Gaza people. By the way, for the people of Israel.
Millions of displaced Palestinians have lived in the surrounding Arab countries, including Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. The far-right Israeli ministers are increasingly calling for the relocation of Palestinians to Gaza and to move them out of the land in the West Bank, part of an extreme view that will realize Jewish biblical claims on the land and improve Israel’s security.
The Israeli government, the White House and its National Security Council all declined to respond to multiple CBS news requests for comment.
Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and former adviser, first suggested that Gaza be discussed simultaneously at Harvard University in February 2024, even if people focus on building livelihoods, if people focus on building livelihoods.
The Associated Press was the first person to report on Friday, with the United States and Israel ties with Sudan, Somalia and Somaliland involving the resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza.
Emmet Lyons contributed to the report.
