Tripoli (TDI): The US embassy in Libya on Sunday denied reports that the US government was working on a plan to relocate Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya.
On Thurdsay, NBC News reported that the US government is working on a plan to permanently relocate as many as one million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya, according to Reuters.
NBC News cited 5 individuals with knowledge of the issue, including two people with direct knowledge and a former US official.
The report of alleged plans to relocate Gaza people to Libya is false, the US embassy said in a statement.
Trump has previously stated he would like the US to take over the Gaza Strip and its Palestinian population resettled elsewhere.
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Palestinians strongly reject any plan involving them vacating Gaza, comparing such plans to the 1948 “Nakba,” or “catastrophe,” when hundreds of thousands were displaced in the war that led to the establishment of Israel.
When the US President first floated his idea after assuming the charge, he stated he wanted US allies Egypt and Jordan to take in Gazans.
Both countries rejected the idea, which drew condemnation on international level, with Palestinians, Arab states and the UN stating it would amount to ethnic cleansing.
In April, Trump said, “Palestinians could be relocated to different nations, and you have plenty of states that will do that.”
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During his visit to Qatar this week, Trump reiterated his desire to take over Gaza, stating he wanted to see it become a “freedom zone” and that there was nothing left to save.
Trump has previously stated he wants to turn the territory into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
