 "People walk amidst the destruction caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, February 24, 2025. File Image/AP")
The United States and Israel have approached three east African countries for resettling Palestinians expelled under US President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza Strip, according to a report.
Under Trump’s plan, the United States would take over Gaza once the war ends and would expel all Palestinians from the strip. Once under US occupation, Trump has said the region would be developed into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.
The Associated Press has reported that the United States and Israel have approached Sudan, Somalia, and Somalia’s breakaway region Somaliland to resettle expelled Palestinians in exchange for a host of incentives, including financial aid and recognition in case of Somaliland.
Trump’s plan, which has been endorsed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , essentially kills the two-state solution and the idea of Palestinian nationhood. The plan, which amounts to state-sponsored ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, has been rejected by the Arab world.
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As Trump had said that Palestinians would be settled in “beautiful” places, the report puts that approach in question as Sudan and Somalia are both war-torn countries. Sudan has some of the world’s worst humanitarian crises in the midst of a yearslong civil war and Somalia has a severe terrorism problem.
US, Israel offer financial, security incentives
Despite all-round rejection in the Arab world , US and Israeli officials have confirmed contacts with Sudan, Somalia, and Somaliland, according to AP.
Officials from Sudan told the news agency the country rejected the US proposal.
The agency reported that US and Israel’s outreach to these three countries began last month.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsThe report said that the United States has offered a variety of incentives, financial, diplomatic, and security, to woo the three countries to come on board.
As for Sudan’s response, an official said, “This suggestion was immediately rebuffed. No one opened this matter again.”
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Separately, Sudan’s military chief General Abdel-Fattah Burhan at an Arab leaders’ summit last week in Egypt that his country “categorically rejects” any plan that aims to transfer “the brotherly Palestinians from their land under whatever justification or name”.
As for Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia of 3 million, a US official said that the United States was “having a quiet conversation with Somaliland about a range of areas where they can be helpful to the US in exchange for recognition”.
In the case of Somalia, an official said that the country had not been approached.