Scoop: Israel seeks U.S. help on deals to move Palestinians out of Gaza

[Right_in_Virginia]

Scoop: Israel seeks U.S. help on deals to move Palestinians out of Gaza
Axios, Jul 18, 2025

The director of Israel's Mossad spy agency visited Washington this week seeking U.S. help in convincing countries to take hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza, two sources with knowledge of issue tell Axios.

The spy chief, David Barnea, told White House envoy Steve Witkoff that Israel has been speaking in particular with Ethiopia, Indonesia and Libya.
Why it matters: The Israeli government's goal of removing much of Gaza's population is hugely controversial. While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government claims such a "relocation" would be "voluntary," U.S. and Israeli legal experts have labeled it a war crime.

Behind the scenes: In their meeting earlier this week, Barnea told Witkoff that Ethiopia, Indonesia and Libya had expressed openness to receiving large numbers of Palestinians from Gaza, the two source say.

* Barnea suggested that the U.S. offer incentives to those countries and help Israel convince them.
* Witkoff was non-committal, and it's not clear if the U.S. will actively weigh in on this issue, one source said.
* The White House, the Israeli Prime Minister's Office, and the foreign ministries of Ethiopia, Indonesia and Libya did not respond to requests for comment prior to publication.


More:  https://www.axios.com/2025/07/18/israel-send-palestinians-gaza-indonesia-ethiopia

[Right_in_Virginia]

FTA:

big picture: Nearly every Palestinian in Gaza has been displaced during the war, often multiple times. Most buildings in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed.

* Israel has been developing a plan for moving all two million residents of the enclave to a small "humanitarian zone" near the border with Egypt.

* That plan has sparked concerns in Egypt and many Western countries that Israel is preparing for the mass displacement of Palestinians out of Gaza, something Netanyahu's ultranationalist coalition partners and many inside his own party have been pushing for years.

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