According to sources familiar with this effort, the Trump administration and Israel have approached the governments in Sudan and Somalia and are also interested in Syria as a possible place to resettle Palestinians who fled Gaza.
Trump’s team is mulling over the idea of Palestinians being resettled in another country as part of his larger goal to end Israel’s war in Gaza with Hamas and rebuild the devastated Palestinian enclave.
The president said that no Palestinians were being expelled. A Voice of America reporter asked the Irish Prime Minister about his controversial remarks made in February, when he suggested reclaiming Gaza for rebuilding.
Mr. Trump said this during a press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on February 4, saying that Gaza could be the “Riviera” of the Middle Eastern.
Mr. Trump stated that “we should go to other countries with humanitarian hearts and there are many that want to do that, and build different domains that would ultimately be occupied and occupied by the 1,8 million Palestinians who live in Gaza to end the death and destruction.”
CBS News confirmed that a combination of Israelis and Americans communicated with Sudan and Somalia. Senior far-right Israeli officials are already calling for Palestinians to leave the enclave. One source claimed that Mr. Trump’s remarks had only encouraged Israel to reach out and explore options for Palestinian resettlement.
CBS News reported that three sources who are familiar with Mr. Trump’s idea to resettle Gazans in another country said his administration, as well as Israel, were also interested in Syria. According to a source who is familiar with the Middle East policy of the Trump administration, the administration has tried outreaching to Syria’s interim government through a third party interlocutor. CBS News reported that another source in the region said the administration had approached the government of Syria, but there was no indication whether the outreach had received a response.
CBS News reported that a senior Syrian official said they were unaware of any outreach by Israel or the U.S. to their government about resettlement for Gazans.
Dahir Hassan is Somalia’s Ambassador to the U.S. He told CBS News “neither U.S. nor Israeli authorities approached the Somali government about any proposed relocations of Palestinians in Somalia.” Hassan expressed concern about the spread of unverified information that could fuel recruitment propaganda by extremist groups such as ISIS and Al-Shabaab.
CBS News has requested a comment from the Sudanese Government.
The fledgling Syrian interim government has been in place for just three months, following the overthrow of Bashar al Assad. His brutal regime had ruled Syria with an iron fist for decades. Sudan, a nation in northeast Africa, is currently engulfed in civil war. It also faces a refugee problem and famine. Over the past two decades, tens of thousands Sudanese have sought asylum in Israel. They were either detained in Israel’s desert detention centers, or forced to live in a state of insecurity. Somalia, an East African nation that was once a failed state, is now a fragile country where Al-Shabaab militant Islamists continue to wage a deadly war.
In his news conference on Feb. 4, Mr. Trump said that Palestinians could choose to leave Gaza, but also hinted at the possibility of their permanent departure. He said in a Fox News interview a few days later, “We will build beautiful, safe communities. Could be five, six or two.” We’ll build safe, secure communities just a bit further away from the Palestinians. In the same interview he said Palestinians would not have the right of return to Gaza, under his plan, because the enclave is “not habitable” and will be for many years.
In January , the United Nations stated that 90% of Gaza’s housing units are damaged or destroyed. 1.9 million Gazans civilians were also displaced. Gaza’s Health Ministry says that more than 48, 000 Palestinians have died in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. The war began in October 2023 after Hamas attacked Israel, killing more than 1,000 Israelis.
Arab leaders, the United Nations, and some Democratic legislators all condemned Mr. Trump’s plan to empty out Gaza, with some calling it ethnic cleansing. Arab leaders instead endorsed a post-war Egyptian construction plan for Gaza, which was rejected by both the Trump administration and Israel, citing the Gaza Strip as uninhabitable.
The former President Joe Biden’s administration sent U.S. officials to Damascus on a regular schedule to meet with the newly formed Syrian government. However, the visits have now stopped. The new Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (formerly Abu Mohammad al-Jolani) condemned Mr. Trump’s comments in February. He said that the U.S. President’s plan was “a serious crime that would ultimately fail “. The Trump administration has not yet revealed its overall policy towards the new Syrian government.
The Trump administration should engage with the new government of Damascus directly, especially after the agreement reached between Damascus (the U.S. allied Syrian Democratic Forces) and Damascus. “The Trump administration should engage directly with the new government in Damascus, particularly after the agreement between Damascus and the SDF (the U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces).”
Israel has been conducting airstrikes on Syria’s Assad regime sites since December. It also seized land in the buffer zone that separates both countries. Israel claimed to have struck a Damascus neighborhood this week in order to destroy the Islamic Jihad headquarters, a militant group backed by Iran that holds a significant foothold on Gaza and the West Bank.
State Department spokesperson deferred the Israeli government and told CBS News Middle East Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, “continues tirelessly to either extend Phase One (of Israel-Hamas cesfire agreement) or advance to Phase Two while keeping these principles in mind”.
The State Department also referenced remarks made by Witkoff in a Fox News interview from February, in which he stated: “We need new policy prescriptions to end up with a better life in Gaza and Palestine.”
Witkoff suggested, in the same Fox interview, that Gaza’s Palestinian population would be able to go to other Middle East Arab nations or other countries outside the region. “I think the president’s answer is: How do we deal with where two million people could go?” And I think that the obvious answers are in some ways, Egypt and in other aspects, Jordan. But in others, there are countries who have called up to us and said this humanitarian effort is something we want to do.
When asked by Margaret Brennan, moderator of “Face the Nation,” on Sunday if the Trump administration was in talks with other countries regarding the relocation of the two million Palestinians living in Gaza, Witkoff replied again, “I believe we are exploring all options and alternatives that will lead to a more comfortable life for Gazans. Also, the people of Israel. “We’re looking at all those things.”
As refugees, millions of Palestinians have already fled their homes and are living in Arab countries around them, such as Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt. Israeli far-right ministers are increasingly calling for the removal of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank. They believe that this would satisfy a Biblical claim to land by Jews and increase Israel’s safety.
CBS News has repeatedly asked the White House, the Israeli government and its National Security Council for comment.
Jared Kushner, Trump’s son in law and former adviser, first said that Gaza’s waterfront property “could be very valuable if people focused on building livelihoods” at a discussion on camera at Harvard University in Febuary 2024.
The Associated Press was first to announce Friday that the U.S., Israel, and Sudan had contacted Somalia and Somaliland about resettling Palestinians in Gaza.
