Media coverage
NRK — Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation · 2025-07-09
An NRK report on US and Israeli efforts to find countries, including Sudan and Somaliland, willing to take in Gaza's population. Omar Shaban says the plans are endorsed neither by Palestinians nor by international law; some Palestinians will leave to give their children safety and a future, but many will resist because Gaza is their home, and the most important thing now is to end the war.
An NRK report on US and Israeli efforts to find countries, including Sudan and Somaliland, willing to take in Gaza's population. Omar Shaban says the plans are endorsed neither by Palestinians nor by international law; some Palestinians will leave to give their children safety and a future, but man…
The USA and Israel are talking about displacing Palestinians.
We are looking toward several countries, Trump said during Netanyahu’s visit.
This war-ravaged country is said to be one option.
– Israel has not dared to propose anything like that before, because of international reactions, believes Tal Schneider, who is a political commentator at Times of Israel.
So when the US president in February this year presented plans for a riviera in the Gaza Strip and spoke about emptying the coastal strip of Palestinians, Israeli leaders were surprised, she believes.
– Netanyahu would never have proposed it alone, not because he does not want it, but because it is not easy to carry out, she says by phone to NRK.
Tal Schneider
The newspaper Schneider works for has had leaks from closed meetings where Benjamin Netanyahu told Israeli parliamentarians that Israel is “destroying more and more houses, and the Palestinians therefore have nowhere to return. The only obvious result will be that Gaza residents choose to emigrate outside the Strip.”
During Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House, the prime minister said that they are now getting closer to finding several countries that will give Palestinians “a better future.”
Israel and the USA are now looking toward several countries, despite the UN having been clear that the forcible transfer of a people from an occupied territory violates international law.
## Sudan, Somalia and Somaliland
Netanyahu has asked the Israeli intelligence service Mossad to find countries that will take in Palestinians.
According to media outlets such as Axios, Newsweek and AP, Israel has contacted the war-ravaged country of Sudan.
Civil war broke out in the East African country in April 2023, and it is described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
The conflict between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary force RSF has been marked by extreme violence. In recent weeks, it has flared up particularly in the capital area of Khartoum.
But the Sudanese government says it has rejected the Israeli proposal.
NRK has tried to speak with the government in Sudan, without success.
– I assume they have asked war-ravaged countries, because Western countries would not have taken in so many, Dahlia Scheindlin tells NRK.
She is an American-Israeli political analyst based in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Dahlia Scheindlin
Two anonymous sources from the Sudanese government told Al Jazeera that they received the inquiries even before Donald Trump was sworn in.
They were offered military aid and help to rebuild the country after the civil war.
– All three of these countries are weak countries, which the USA and Israel surely believed would not resist offers of aid, says Munzoul Assal.
Sudanese soldiers celebrate after recapturing the Salha neighborhood.
He is a professor at the Chr. Michelsen Institute and formerly at the University of Khartoum, Sudan.
His areas of expertise are refugees, peacebuilding and internally displaced persons.
– But there is very strong support from both the government and the people in Sudan for Palestinians. Therefore Sudan has reacted negatively to the proposal.
Munzoul Assal
According to AP sources, Somaliland was also offered help in being recognized as a country, in exchange for taking in Palestinians.
Somaliland is said to have been offered help to become internationally recognized as a country. Here is President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi during an opening ceremony in Kenya this year.
At the same time, Somaliland’s foreign minister Abdirahman Dahir Adan denies that they have received an offer.
– These plans are not approved by Palestinians or by international law, says Omar Shaban, director of the Palestinian think tank PalThink.
Omar Shaban
– Of course some Palestinians will leave, to provide safety for their children and a better future. But many will resist, because Gaza is their home.
Egypt, which borders Gaza, has also been asked to receive displaced Palestinians. In exchange, Israel was supposed to try to have the Egyptians’ gigantic foreign debt erased by negotiating with, among others, the World Bank.
This was revealed by one of Israel’s largest online newspapers, Ynet, as early as three weeks after Hamas’s October 7 attack in 2023.
NRK has tried to get in touch with the Israeli embassy, but they have not answered our inquiries.
– So far it is mostly talk, and no concrete plans, Scheindlin believes, and she is supported by Tal Schneider.
Schneider believes it is not realistic to displace the entire population out of Gaza.
– The Israeli government says that many countries are willing to cooperate, but we have not seen anyone say yes. It feels like a political stunt.
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– How are the plans to move Palestinians being received in Israel?
– There is broad support for the plans, but people do not believe it is going to happen. We are talking about 2 million people who would have to be moved, says Schneider.
A woman tries to sweep away dust and gravel from her home after an Israeli attack, in Gaza City this year.
Dahlia Scheindlin also says the plans are supported in Israel.
– There have been surveys showing that more than 80% of the Jewish population supports the concept of expelling Palestinians.
Fewer believe it is realistic.
– But it shows how many Israeli Jews think it would be good if they were no longer there, says Scheindlin.
## Leaked document shows plans for displacement
The plans to send Palestinians out of the Gaza Strip were seriously launched in February this year when the USA and Israel discussed the “voluntary evacuation” of Gaza’s 2.2 million inhabitants.
## Read also
Top Israeli politician on genocide accusations: – Nonsense and lies
Trump presented a proposal for the USA to “take over” the Gaza Strip, clear the area, and develop it as a real estate project that he described as the Riviera of the Middle East, while the Palestinians would be moved to other countries.
The plans have been strongly criticized from several quarters.
Organizations such as the UN have condemned it, and Amnesty called the plans ethnic cleansing – that is, driving a people from an area to which they belong.
## Read also
Document reportedly shows Israel’s plan to “transfer” the Palestinians to Egypt
– Trump’s support has enabled Israeli leaders to speak openly about expelling Palestinians, Dahlia Scheindlin believes.
## Arab countries unite around plan
In March 2025, the Arab League launched a $53 billion plan to rebuild Gaza.
The plan, presented by Egypt, is backed by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and by several Western countries such as France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Italy.
Under this plan, a temporary government, that is, not Hamas, will receive support and assistance from the UN and regional friends to rebuild.
## Read also
World-famous consulting firm calculated what it would cost to send people out of Gaza
Their plan also means that the Palestinians will be allowed to remain in Gaza.
But the most important thing now is to bring the war to an end, says Omar Shaban.
– We must have international cooperation and international support to end the war. Because if you build something now, there is no guarantee that it will not be destroyed in a couple of months.
## Wants to create a “humanitarian city”
At the same time as Israel and the US are trying to find third-party countries, Defense Minister Israel Katz has instructed the Israeli military (IDF) to prepare a plan to establish a “humanitarian city” in the south of the Gaza Strip.
Palestinians carry bags of food and other aid distributed by GHF in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday this week. The controversial aid scheme is supported by Israel and the US.
Initially, 600,000 Palestinians, mainly from the Al-Mawasi area on the coast, will be moved to the border city of Rafah, which lies in ruins.
Once they have been moved, they will not be allowed to leave the area, Katz says.
Two women comfort each other after Palestinians in the food line were shot; the UN calls the aid scheme a “death trap.” Since the GHF aid scheme took over, more than 600 Palestinians have been killed during aid distribution.
Eventually, the entire population of Gaza is to be moved to Rafah, meaning that the entire Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip is to be expelled, writes The Times of Israel.
Text © NRK — Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation — archived here with attribution to the source. — Machine translation for archival reference. — Original source