The Trump administration and Israel are also interested in Syria as a potential location for resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza, according to three sources familiar with the efforts, as they approach the governments of Sudan and Somali.
The idea of Palestinian resettlement in other countries is one of several options Trump teams are biting as part of the US president’s bigger goal of ending Israeli war with Hamas in Gaza and rebuilding a devastated Palestinian enclave.
President Trump said Wednesday that the Irish Prime Minister was asked at the American Elliptical Office Conference when he proposed regaining ownership of Gaza on February’s president during a meeting of the Irish Prime Minister’s Oval Secretariat.
Trump spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a press conference on February 4th. “The Middle Eastern Riviera.“
“We should go to other countries of interest with a humane heart, and there are many of them who want to do this and will eventually be occupied by the 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza and will build various territories that will end death and destruction,” Trump said.
Two diplomatic sources have been confirmed by CBS News, where a combination of Israeli and US officials contacted Sudan and Somalia. Senior Israeli government officials have already called for Palestinians to migrate from the enclave. Trump said his remarks were merely boldering Israel to reach out to other countries to explore Palestinian resettlement opportunities.
Three sources familiar with Trump’s idea of resetting Gazan in another country told CBS News that his administration and Israel are also interested in Syria. Sources familiar with the Trump administration’s Middle East policy said the administration has attempted to outreach Syria’s new interim government through third-party interlocutors. Another source in the region told CBS News that the Syrian government had been approached, but it was unclear whether Syria had responded to outreach.
A Syrian official told CBS News that he was unaware of Israel or the US outreach to the government regarding Gazan resettlement.
Somalia’s US ambassador, Dahil Hassan, told CBS News that “neither the US administration nor Israeli authorities have approached the Somali government regarding proposals to relocate Palestinians to Somalia.” Hassan also expressed concern that “the spread of such unverified information is at risk of promoting recruitment propaganda by extremist groups such as ISIS and Al Shabaab, which could exacerbate the security challenges in the region.”
The Sudanese government has not responded to CBS News’ requests for comment.
Syria’s fledgling interim government has only three months later Bashar al-Assad’s fall And his brutal regime held iron fists on top of the Syrian people for decades. Sudan’s Northeast Arab African country is currently engulfed in civil war and refugee crisis, suffering from a pocket of hunger. Over the past 20 years, tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees have been seeking asylum in Israel, and have either been detained in detention centres based in the country’s desert, or left to survive without formal status. Somalia’s East African country is a vulnerable and previously failed state where extremist Muslim group Al Shabaab continues to undergo a fatal rebellion.
Since the February 4 press conference, Trump has suggested that Palestinians can choose whether to leave or not, but that departures from Gaza could be permanent. in Fox News Interview A few days later, “We’ll build a beautiful community, a safe community, it could be five, six, two. But we’ll build a safe community a little away from where they (Palestinians) are.” In the same interview, he I said The Palestinians will not have the right to return to Gaza under his plan, as they will not be in years to come, as the enclave is “not habitable.”
In January, the United Nations reported that over 90% of Gaza’s housing units had been damaged or destroyed, with 1.9 million Gazan civilians being evacuated. Gaza’s health ministry says more than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war between Israel and Hamas. Israel and Hamas were attacked by terrorists on October 7, 2023, where Hamas killed more than 1,000 Israelis and took about 100 hostages.
Several Arab governments, the United Nations, and several Democrats quickly denounced Trump’s idea of emptying Gaza with what defines the idea as ethnic cleansing. Instead, Arab leaders approved Egypt’s postwar construction plan for Gaza last week, but both the Trump administration and Israel were I’ll refuse immediately Again, he cites the Gaza Strip as uninhabitable.
Former President Joe Biden’s administration was regularly sending US authorities to meet Damascus’ new Syrian government, led by Trump’s inauguration when the visit stopped. Ahmed al-Shara, the new leader of Syria, formerly known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, quickly condemned Trump’s remarks in February, saying the US president’s plan is “a serious crime that will ultimately fail.” It is unclear what the Trump administration’s overall policy towards the new Syrian government will be.
“The Trump administration should directly engage with the new government in Damascus, especially after an agreement between Damascus and the SDF (the Syrian Democratic Forces allied with the US), and to ensure that Iran will never get Syria’s real real ever again, to ensure that the US military will fully withdraw in the right way in the right way, for the true and lasting defeat of ISIS,” the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a defence and humanitarian organisation, told CBS News.
Israel has been carrying out extensive airstrikes in Syria since December, described as an arms site for the Assad regime, seized territory in a buffer zone between the two countries. Over the past week, Israel has been raiding within the outskirts of Damascus, claiming it is robbing the headquarters of Islamic Jihad, an Iran-backed extremist group that has substantial footholds on Gaza and the occupied west bank.
A State Department spokesman has postponed the Israeli government and told CBS News that Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkov is “still working tirelessly towards either the Israeli-Hamas suspension agreement) or progress towards Phase 2 with these principles.”
The State Department also mentioned Witkov’s remarks from a February interview with Fox News, saying “we need to explore new policy formulations that will ultimately lead to better lives for Gaza and Palestinians.”
In an interview with Fox, Witkov suggested that the entire Palestinians of Gaza could go to other Middle East-based Arab countries and other countries. you”.
“Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan was asked Sunday whether the Trump administration is talking to other countries about the relocation of two million Palestinians in Gaza. Witkov said again “I think we are exploring all the alternatives and options that will lead to a better life for Margaret, Gaza people, and by the way, for the people of Israel.
Millions of displaced people live in the surrounding Arab countries, including Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt. The far-right Israeli minister is increasingly urging the Palestinians to Gaza and also to move the West Bank off the Jordan River as part of its extreme view.
The Israeli government, the White House and its national security council all declined to respond to multiple CBS news requests for comments.
Trump’s son-in-law and former advisor Jared Kushner, during a February 2024 camera discussion at Harvard University, first proposed that if people focus on making a living, Gaza’s “waterfront property is focused on making a living, it could be very valuable.
The Associated Press was the first to report that the US and Israel had contacted Sudan, Somalia and Somaliland about resetting Palestinians in Gaza.
Emmet Lyons contributed to this report.
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