According to three sources familiar with the initiative, the Trump administration, along with Israel, has reached out to the governments of Sudan and Somalia, and has also shown interest in Syria as potential locations for resettling Palestinians from Gaza.
The concept of relocating Palestinians is one among several strategies being considered by the Trump administration as part of the U.S. president’s broader objective to resolve the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and to assist in the reconstruction of the heavily damaged Palestinian territory.
“Nobody is expelling any Palestinians,” President Trump stated on Wednesday when asked by a Voice of America reporter about his earlier controversial comments regarding taking ownership of Gaza during a meeting with the Irish Prime Minister in the Oval Office.
During a press conference on February 4 with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mr. Trump suggested that Gaza could become the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
“We should approach other sympathetic countries, many of which are eager to assist, and create various domains for the 1.8 million Palestinians currently living in Gaza, thereby bringing an end to the ongoing death and destruction,” Mr. Trump remarked.
Israeli and U.S. officials have communicated with Sudan and Somalia about this initiative, as confirmed by two diplomatic sources to CBS News. Senior officials in the far-right Israeli government have been advocating for the migration of Palestinians from Gaza, and Mr. Trump’s statements have encouraged Israel to explore possibilities for resettlement with other nations, said one source.
Three sources close to Mr. Trump’s resettlement discussions indicated that both his administration and Israel have also been looking into Syria as an option. One insider familiar with U.S. Middle East policy noted that attempts to connect with Syria’s new interim government have been made through a third-party mediator. Another regional source mentioned that while the Syrian government was approached, it remains unclear if they have responded.
A senior Syrian representative told CBS News that they had no knowledge of any outreach from Israel or the U.S. regarding the resettlement of Gazans.
Dahir Hassan, Somalia’s ambassador to the U.S., informed CBS News that “neither the U.S. administration nor Israeli officials have reached out to the Somali government about any potential relocation of Palestinians to Somalia.” He also expressed concerns that “the spread of such unverified information could fuel recruitment propaganda for extremist groups like ISIS and Al-Shabaab, possibly worsening security issues in the region.”
The Sudanese government has yet to respond to CBS News’ request for comments.
Syria’s newly formed interim government has only been in place for three months, following the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad and his authoritarian regime that oppressed the Syrian populace for decades. Sudan is engulfed in civil war and grappling with a refugee crisis and areas of famine. Over the last twenty years, tens of thousands of Sudanese refugees have sought asylum in Israel but have faced detention in desert camps or been left without any formal status. Somalia, a fragile state, continues to face a serious insurgency from the militant group Al-Shabaab.
Since his February 4 press conference, Mr. Trump has suggested that Palestinians could choose whether to leave; however, he has also indicated that such a departure might be permanent. In a Fox News interview shortly thereafter, he stated, “We will construct beautiful, secure communities, it could be five, six, or even two. But we will build safe communities somewhat away from where they (the Palestinians) currently are.” In that same interview, he asserted that Palestinians would not have the right to return to Gaza as his plan suggested it “is not habitable” and would remain so for years.
The United Nations reported in January that over 90% of housing units in Gaza are either damaged or destroyed, resulting in 1.9 million Gazan civilians being displaced. According to Gaza’s health ministry, more than 48,000 Palestinians have lost their lives in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas that was ignited by the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack, during which Hamas killed over 1,000 Israelis and took approximately 100 more hostage.
Several Arab governments, the United Nations, and some Democratic lawmakers condemned Mr. Trump’s plan to evacuate Gaza, with many characterizing it as ethnic cleansing. Instead, Arab leaders offered an alternative Egyptian post-war reconstruction proposal for Gaza last week, which the Trump administration and Israel quickly rejected, again citing the uninhabitability of the Gaza Strip.
The administration of former President Joe Biden regularly dispatched U.S. officials to meet with the new Syrian government in Damascus prior to Mr. Trump’s inauguration, after which those visits ceased. Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, promptly condemned Mr. Trump’s February remarks, calling the proposed plan “a grave crime that will ultimately fail.” The overall policy stance of the Trump administration towards the new Syrian government remains uncertain.
“The Trump administration should directly engage with the new government in Damascus, especially following the agreement between Damascus and the SDF (the U.S.-aligned Syrian Democratic Forces), to ensure that Iran never regains a foothold in Syria, facilitate a genuine defeat of ISIS, and to execute a complete and proper withdrawal of U.S. forces, unlike what happened in Afghanistan,” stated Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a Washington-based advocacy and humanitarian organization, to CBS News.
Israel has conducted extensive airstrikes in Syria since December, targeting what it labels as Assad regime arms depots, and has seized land in the buffer zone between both nations. Recently, Israel targeted a site in a suburb of Damascus, claiming to have dismantled the headquarters of Islamic Jihad, an Iran-backed militant group with significant influence in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
A spokesperson for the State Department referred CBS News to the Israeli government, stating that Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff “is tirelessly working towards either an extension of Phase One (of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement) or moving ahead to Phase Two with these principles in mind.”
The State Department also cited comments from Witkoff made during a February Fox News interview wherein he asserted, “We need to explore new policy solutions that ultimately result in an improved quality of life for Gazans and Palestinians.”
Witkoff suggested during the same Fox News interview that Gaza’s entire Palestinian populace could be resettled to other Arab nations and beyond: “I think the president’s solution is: how do we provide options for two million people? The logical choices are: to some extent, Egypt, to some degree, Jordan; but also other nations that have reached out and expressed a willingness to assist in this humanitarian effort.”
When asked on “Face the Nation” whether the Trump administration was engaging with other nations regarding the relocation of two million Palestinians from Gaza, Witkoff reiterated, “I believe we’re evaluating all possibilities and alternatives that might enhance the lives of Gazans. And, notably, for the people of Israel. So we’re looking into all these options.”
Millions of displaced Palestinians already reside as refugees in neighboring Arab countries, including Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt. Far-right Israeli ministers have increasingly advocated for relocating Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank from their lands to fulfill a Biblical claim by Jews to the territory and enhance Israel’s security.
Both the Israeli government and the White House, including its National Security Council, declined to respond to multiple CBS News inquiries for comments.
In February 2024, Trump’s son-in-law and former advisor Jared Kushner first proposed that Gaza’s “waterfront property could be quite valuable if efforts were made to develop livelihoods” during a public discussion at Harvard University.
The Associated Press was the first to report on Friday that the U.S. and Israel had reached out to Sudan, Somalia, and Somaliland regarding the resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza.
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