In a survey of 501 Israeli adults, 68% said they supported President Donald Trump’s plan to relocate the Gaza Strip population, Israeli Channel 12 reported Monday.
A fifth of the polls, which have a margin of error of 4.4%, said they opposed the plan, with another 12% saying they were unsure.
Israeli Defense Minister Katz decided on Monday to establish a voluntary departure station for Gaza residents, Channel 14 reported.
In a paradox to Trump’s initiative, Egypt is developing a plan to rebuild Gaza without banishing Palestinians from the strip, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.
Egypt and Jordan, who suggested that Trump would absorb Gazan, denounced plans to relocate the population. The Arab League, which is a member of Egypt and Jordan, also publicly opposed the plan.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was in Saudi Arabia on Monday on a tour around the region, said the US was supposed to hear alternative proposals.
“If the Arab countries have better plans, that’s great,” Rubio told an American radio show on Thursday that “Clay Travis and Buck Sexton are showing the show.”
Egyptian officials are discussing alternative plans with diplomats in Europe, not just Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, according to the Associated Press. They also talk about how they can fund the reconstruction of Gaza.
Earlier this month, Trump announced his relocation plans at a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House. “The US will take over the Gaza Strip,” Trump said. “We own it… we have the opportunity to do amazing things… the Middle Eastern Riviera.”
He later said that the entire population of Gaza should “go to other countries of interest with a humane heart, and there are many of them who want to do this, and ultimately live in Gaza: 1.8 million people I proposed to build different territories occupied by the Palestinians: death and destruction, and frankly, bad luck.”
