The United States (US) has called on several countries to accept "voluntary" resettlement of Palestinians fleeing the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said today.
Israel has again warned the population of Gaza, which has been almost completely displaced multiple times since the outbreak of war following Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, of a new offensive, which comes after a blockade of humanitarian aid that lasted more than two months.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly considered displacing Gaza's two million residents before the enclave is rebuilt.
In response to a question during a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio said that "there is no expulsion," but rather that "if someone is willing to go somewhere else for a while because they are sick, because their children need to go to school or whatever, are there countries in the region that are willing to host them for a while?"
He added that these would be "voluntary personal decisions," and opposition Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley asked: "If there's no clean water, no food, and bombing is everywhere, is that really a voluntary decision?"
Rubio did not say which countries were contacted, but denied that Libya was among them.
American television channel NBC News, citing anonymous sources, recently reported that the Trump administration is working on a plan to permanently relocate up to one million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya.
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