The Trump administration has discussed with Libya a plan to permanently relocate up to 1 million Palestinians from Gaza to the North African country, NBC News reported Friday.
No final agreement has been reached, according to the report, and Israel has been kept abreast of the discussions.
In return, the administration is offering to unfreeze billions of dollars frozen by the U.S. more than a decade ago, according to the report.
President Donald Trump first floated the idea of relocating Palestinians in early February during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s first visit to the White House since Trump took over the presidency. Trump said the U.S. could take over Gaza, rebuild it, and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
“I don’t think people should be going back,” Trump said then. “You can’t live in Gaza right now. I think we need another location. I think it should be a location that’s going to make people happy.”
Netanyahu told Newsmax Trump’s plan was a “fresh new idea.”
“Understand what he’s saying: Let them relocate in some other place and then rebuild Gaza. And then people will want to come back, let them come back if they disavow terrorism,” Netanyahu told Newsmax in a Feb. 7 interview.
Given Libya’s estimated population of 7.36 million, adding 1 million people would be the equivalent of adding 46 million people to the United States, according to NBC News. According to the Trump administration, the Biden administration allowed in nearly half of that with open-border policies during his four years in office.
It’s not clear where in Libya the Palestinians would be resettled, according to the report.
Logistics of such a move are also murky. It would take nearly 1,200 flights to transport 1 million people, likely from the airport in Cairo, Egypt, 200 miles from Gaza, according to the report. It’s a 1,300-mile drive from Gaza to Benghazi.
Newsmax reached out to the White House for comment.
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