U.S. wants to resettle one million Gazans in Libya

Libya has been beset by chaos since NATO-backed forces overthrew long-serving ruler Col. Muammar Gaddafi in October 2011.

SouthFront

The United States is working on a plan to permanently relocate as much as one million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya, NBC News reported on May 16, citing five people with knowledge of the matter.

The plan is under serious enough consideration that the administration of President Donald Trump has already discussed it with Libya’s leadership, according to the report, which noted that a final agreement has yet to be reached.

The news channel said that Washington offered Libya billions of dollars of funds the U.S. froze more than a decade ago in exchange for the resettlement plan.

More than 53,000 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza following the October 7 Hamas-led surprise attack. The situation in the Strip, which was devastated by the war, worsened earlier this week as Israel launched a large-scale offensive with the aim of completely defeating Hamas. Over 300 people were reportedly killed in the last three days.

 Three of the sources who spoke to NBC News said that Israel was being kept in the loop about the administration’s talks on the plan.

    “These reports are untrue,” an administration spokesperson told NBC in response. “The situation on the ground is untenable for such a plan. Such a plan was not discussed and makes no sense.”

Another official told the channel that it remains unclear where one million Palestinians from Gaza could be settled in Libya, plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

The country is now split between the internationally-recognized Government of National Unity (GNU) in Tripoli, which is supported by an array of militia groups and Syrian mercenaries, and a rival government based in Benghazi backed by the House of Representatives and the Libyan National Army (LNA).

The report also noted the logistical challenges involved in transporting one million people from Gaza to Libya, where no airport or a naval port is present.

Trump first suggested that the U.S. could “take over” Gaza and turn it into a “Middle East Riviera” while forcing its Palestinian inhabitants to relocate to Egypt, Jordan, or other countries last February.

Visiting the Middle East earlier this week, the U.S. President again said that he wanted the U.S. to “take” Gaza and turn it into a “freedom zone”.

    “I have concepts for Gaza that I think are very good. Make it a freedom zone. Let the United States get involved and make it just a freedom zone,” he said. “I’d be proud to have the United States have it, take it, make it a freedom zone.”

NBC News didn’t specify if the U.S. was in talks over the plan with the GNU, the LNA or both sides. The areas controlled by the LNA, which is led by Khalifa Haftar, are more stable, while Abdul Hamid al-Dbeibeh, the head of the GNU, is currently facing protests over recent deadly clashes in Tripoli initiated by his allies.  

The CIA’s most recent publicly available estimate of Libya’s current population is about 7.36 million. In terms of population, Libya absorbing 1 million more people would be equivalent to the U.S. taking in about 46 million.