Trump’s cruel plan threatens millions of Palestinians

The US consider transferring up to 1 million Palestinians to Libya, but the plan finds resistance and many obstacles

The Trump government is working on a plan to permanently relocate up to 1 million Gaza’s Palestinians to Libya, five people were aware of the NBC News effort. The plan is being considered so seriously that the government discussed him with Libya’s leadership, two people with direct knowledge of the plans and a former US employee said.

In exchange for the resettlement of the Palestinians, the government would potentially release Libya billions of dollars in funds that the US has frozen for over a decade, the three people said.

No final agreement was reached, and Israel was kept informed about government discussions, the same sources said.

The State Department and the National Security Council did not respond to several comments requests before the publication of this article. After publication, a spokesman told NBC News, “These reports are false.”

“The situation on the ground is unsustainable for such a plane. Such a plan was not discussed and makes no sense,” said the spokesman.

Basem Naim, a high Hamas employee, said Hamas, the US -designated terrorist group who rules Gaza, was unaware of any discussion about the transfer of Palestinians to Libya.

“Palestinians are deeply rooted in their homeland, strongly committed to her and are ready to fight to the end and sacrifice anything to defend their land, their homeland, their families, and the future of their children,” Nabc News said. “[Os palestinos] They are exclusively the only part that has the right to decide for Palestinians, including Gaza and the residents of Gaza, what to do and what not to do. ”

Representatives of the Israeli government declined to comment.

Libya has been plagued by conflicting instability and political factions over the nearly 14 years since a civil war broke out in the country and its longtime dictator, Muamar Gadadafi, has been deposed. Libya struggles to support its current population, while two rival governments, one in the west led by Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and one in the eastern one led by Khalifa Haftar, actively and violently fight for control. The State Department currently advises Americans not to travel to Libya “due to crime, terrorism, non -detonated land mines, civil disorders, kidnapping and armed conflicts.”

Dbeibah’s government could not be contacted to comment. The Haftar National Army Libyan did not respond to a request for comment.

How many Palestinians in Gaza would leave Libya voluntarily is an open issue. An idea discussed by government authorities is to offer financial incentives, such as free housing and even financial aid, the former US employee said.

The details of when or like any plan to relocate Palestinians to Libya could be implemented are obscure, and an effort to reset up to 1 million people there would probably face significant obstacles.

Such an effort would probably be extremely expensive, and it is unclear how the Trump government would seek to cost it. In the past, the government stated that Arab countries would help Gaza’s reconstruction after the end of the war, but criticized Trump’s idea to permanently relocate Palestinians.

In recent weeks, the Trump government has also considered Libya as a place where it could send some immigrants who want to deport from the US. However, plans to send a group of immigrants to Libya were paralyzed by a federal judge this month.

Transfering up to 1 million Palestinians to Libya can put much higher pressure on the fragile country.

The most recent estimate of the CIA, available publicly, of the current population of Libya is about 7.36 million. In population terms, Libya absorbing 1 million people would be more equivalent to about 46 million people received by the US.

It has not yet been determined exactly where the Palestinians would be resettled in Libya, according to the former US employee. Government officials are analyzing options for housing them and all possible methods to transport them from Gaza to Libya-by air, land and sea-are being considered, according to one of the people with direct knowledge of the project.

Any of these methods would probably be laborious and time consuming, as well as expensive.

About 1,173 flights would be required on the largest passenger plane in the world, the Airbus A380, in its maximum passenger capacity, to carry 1 million people, for example. No airport in Gaza, transporting anyone from there on flights would first require transport to an airport in the region. If Israel does not want to allow Palestinians to pass through its territory, the nearest airport would be Cairo, about 320 kilometers away.

Gaza’s land transport, through Egypt, to Benghazi, Libya’s second largest city, which is easier than the capital, Tripoli, would require a trip of about 2,000 kilometers. Automobiles usually include fewer passengers than other means of transport. About 55 people fit into an intercity passenger bus.

Up to 2,000 people can fit the top versions of some of the US Balses used to transport civilians through the Mediterranean Sea to escape the Libyan civil war in 2011. If these vessels were used – and assuming that they would not need to replenish and that weather conditions were good – it would take hundreds of trips lasting more than one day so that up to 1 million people were traveling from Gaza to Gaza Benghazi.

The plan under discussion is part of President Donald Trump’s view for a postwar Gaza, which, according to him, the US would seek to “possess” and rebuild how he called “the Middle East Riviera,” said two current American authorities, former American authority and two people with direct knowledge of the effort.

“We will take this area, develop it and create thousands and thousands of jobs, and this will be something that the whole Middle East can be proud,” Trump said at the time.

To achieve his goal of Gaza’s reconstruction, Trump said the Palestinians would have to be resettled permanently elsewhere.

“You can’t live in Gaza now, and I think we need another location. I think it should be a place that would make people happy,” Trump said in Febru, during a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump has defined as a goal to find “a beautiful area to reset people permanently in comfortable houses, where they can be happy and not be shot, dead or stabbed to death, as is happening in Gaza.”

“I don’t think people should go back to Gaza,” he said.

Trump’s idea, which surprised some of his leading advisers, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, when he was announced, attracted criticism from the United States Arab Allies and US legislators of both parties.

“We’ll see what the Arab world will say, but you know, that would be problematic in many, many levels,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, RS.C., Trump’s ally at the time.

In March, the US and Israel also rejected an Egyptian proposal to rebuild Gaza without relocating the Palestinians.

Government work in a plan for Libya occurs at a time when Trump’s relationship with Netanyahu became tense, partly because of Israel’s decision to launch a new military offensive in Gaza.

The Trump government has considered several places to reset the Palestinians living in Gaza, according to a high government official, a former US employee familiar with discussions and one of the people with direct knowledge of the effort.

Syria, with its new leadership after the fall of Bashar Al Assad in December, is also being discussed as a possible place for the resettlement of Palestinians currently in Gaza, according to one of the people with direct knowledge of the effort and a former US employee familiar with the discussions.

The Trump government has taken steps to restore diplomatic relations with Syria. Trump announced on Tuesday that the US would suspend sanctions to Syria and briefly met with the country’s new leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa on Wednesday.

With information from NBC News*