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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| ‘Senior Israeli official’ claims multiple countries interested in taking in Gazans |
| 2025-04-05 |
| [IsraelTimes] A “senior Israeli official” briefing reporters on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to Hungary says Jerusalem is in contact with multiple countries about taking in Palestinians from Gaza. While the US is reportedly not actively working to advance President Donald Trump’s plan to take over Gaza and permanently relocate all of its Palestinians, Israel is very serious about it, the “senior Israeli official” says, claiming that several countries are interested. “They want something in return — not necessarily money, but also strategic matters,” the “senior Israeli official” says. “We want to free the hostages and eliminate Hamas and then there is a possibility for wide-scale emigration,” he claims, citing an unspecified poll that found 60% of Gaza’s roughly 2 million residents are interested in emigrating. Israeli officials insist that Gazans won’t be forced to leave, but critics of the initiative argue that it amounts to white-washed ethnic cleansing. Arab countries have fervently refused US and Israeli requests to take in Palestinians, arguing that Gazans should be allowed to remain on their land and warning that allowing such an initiative under these conditions will simply export the conflict into their borders. Jerusalem has yet to publicly commit that those who leave Gaza will be allowed to return. A small group of Gazans who reportedly left last month for work in Indonesia reportedly had to sign onto a declaration acknowledging that they might not be able to return due to the security situation. “Gaza is in ruins — because of Hamas, not because of us,” the “senior Israeli official” asserts. He adds that Israel may “hold onto territory” in Gaza, even though it is not interested in permanently occupying the Strip. While Israel will retain overall security control over Gaza, it wants to transfer control of the Strip to a “consortium of Arab countries” led by the Gulf states who would manage the Strip until further notice, he says. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and others have all expressed willingness to take part in the post-war management of Gaza but they have also all conditioned such assistance on Israel granting a foothold in the Strip to the Palestinian Authority in order to create a pathway to an eventual two-state solution. Netanyahu has long rejected these conditions and his continued insistence that Arab countries will foot the bill regardless has infuriated them. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |