By The U.S. Embassy in Libya on Sunday denied a report claiming that the U.S. government is working on a plan to relocate Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya.
On Thursday, NBC News reported that the Trump administration is working on a plan to permanently relocate as many as one million Palestinians from Gaza to Libya. The report cited five individuals familiar with the matter, including two with direct knowledge and a former U.S. official.
“The report of alleged plans to relocate Gazans to Libya is untrue,” the U.S. Embassy said on the social media platform X.
The Tripoli-based, internationally recognized Government of National Unity was not immediately available for comment.
President Donald Trump has previously expressed interest in the U.S. taking control of the Gaza Strip and relocating its Palestinian population elsewhere.
Palestinians vehemently reject any plan involving their removal from Gaza, comparing such proposals to the 1948 “Nakba,” or “catastrophe,” when hundreds of thousands were dispossessed of their homes in the war that led to the creation of Israel.
When Trump first floated his idea after taking the presidency, he said he wanted U.S. allies Egypt and Jordan to take in people from Gaza. Both countries rejected the proposal, which drew global condemnation, with Palestinians, Arab nations, and the United Nations saying it would amount to ethnic cleansing.
In April, Trump said Palestinians could be moved “around to different countries, and you have plenty of countries that will do that”.
During a visit to Qatar this week, Trump reiterated his desire to take over the territory, saying he wanted to see it become a “freedom zone” and that there was nothing left to save.
Trump has previously said he wants to turn Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
