5/18/2025–|Last update: 04:32 (Mecca time)
The American embassy in Tripoli denied the reports that the US administration is working on a plan to transport the Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya.
“The report on alleged plans to transfer Gaza population to Libya is a shame,” the US embassy said in a post on the X platform.
The NBC News reported last Thursday that the administration of US President Donald Trump is working on a plan to transfer up to one million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya permanently.
In its report, the news network relied on five people familiar with two people who are directly familiar with the matter and a former American official.
Two people who were directly familiar with the plans and a former US official said that the plan is so seriously looking that the American administration discussed it with the Libyan leadership.
In exchange for resettlement of the Palestinians, Washington may launch billions of dollars in Libyan money frozen in the United States for more than a decade, according to what the three people said.
There has been no final agreement yet, and Israel has been informed of the administration’s talks in this regard, according to the same sources.
It was not yet possible to obtain a comment from the internationally recognized national unity government, which is based in Tripoli.
The US State Department and the National Security Council did not respond to repeated requests to comment before the publication of this report. After the publication, a US administration spokesman told NBC News that “these reports are incorrect.” The spokesman added: “The situation on the ground does not allow such a plan. It has not been discussed and it is illogical.”
For his part, the leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) said in the name of Naim for the same network, that the movement is not aware of any discussions on the transfer of Palestinians to Libya.
Naim added, “The Palestinians are very rooted in their homeland, and they are very committed to it, 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,” stressing that “the Palestinians are the only party that has the only right to self -determination, including the fate of Gaza and its inhabitants.”
Representatives of the Israeli government refused to comment on the issue.
Trump surprised everyone, including many within his administration, in early February when he was brought up during his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House, the transfer of the residents of Gaza to Egypt and Jordan, under “humanitarian” claims. The Palestinians strongly reject any plan that involves leaving Gaza.
During his recent visit to the Arab Gulf region a few days ago, Trump reiterated his desire to seize the Palestinian sector, saying that he wanted to see Gaza as a “freedom zone” and that he no longer has anything that could be saved.
The Trump proposal re -displaced Gaza residents under the pretext of its reconstruction and “to become an international coastal resort under US control” an idea previously put forward by Jared Kushner a year ago.
Trump exerted great pressure on Egypt and Jordan to accept the proposal, and it seemed “confident” that they would accept the idea of resettlement of hundreds of thousands of displaced people from Gaza, but Cairo and Amman did not acquiesce, although they faced a hint of suspending the American aid estimated at billions of dollars.
