Mossad chief David Barnea visited Washington this week to request US assistance in persuading other countries to accept hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza, Axios’ Barak Ravid reported on Friday, citing sources familiar with the discussions.
Barnea met with White House envoy Steve Witkoff, revealing that Israel has been in talks with Ethiopia, Indonesia and Libya, all of which have shown some willingness to take in displaced Gazans. He urged the United States to offer incentives to these nations and help facilitate the effort.
Witkoff, however, remained non-committal, and it remains unclear whether Washington will actively engage in the proposal.
While the proposal is in line with the plan President Donald Trump proposed in February, which would see the removal of all Gazans to rebuild the enclave, Axios reported that the White House cooled on the idea after getting significant pushback from Arab countries.
Critics argue that the relocation - although described by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as voluntary - could amount to a war crime under US and Israeli legal analysis.
Israel has been working “very closely” with the United States to identify potential host countries, Netanyahu stated during his recent White House visit. He quoted Trump as envisioning “free choice”- allowing Gazans to either stay or relocate, defining Gaza as “not a prison.”
Despite these assurances, Egypt and several Western nations have voiced alarm over the implications of mass displacement.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)