The Trump administration is working on a plan to permanently relocate up to 1 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya, five people with knowledge of the effort told NBC News.
Basem Naim, a senior Hamas official, said that Hamas, the U.S.-designated terrorist group that has run Gaza, was not aware of any discussions about moving Palestinians to Libya.
“[Palestinians] are exclusively the only party who have the right to decide for the Palestinians, including Gaza and Gazans, what to do and what not to do.”.
Such an effort would likely be extremely expensive, and it’s not clear how the Trump administration would seek to pay for it.
Moving up to 1 million Palestinians to Libya could put far more of a strain on the fragile country.
In terms of population, Libya absorbing 1 million more people would be equivalent to the U.S. taking in about 46 million.
To achieve his goal for the reconstruction of Gaza, Trump has said Palestinians there would have to be permanently resettled elsewhere. »