The United States and Israel are probing the possibility that three African countries (Sudan, Somalia and the self -proclaimed Republic of Somaliland) accept in their territories the Palestinian citizens that President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamín Netanyahu propose to expel from Gaza, as the Associated Press agency has advanced exclusively, which quotes official sources of the two administrations. The proposal arrives after the portz received from Egypt and Jordan to welcome hundreds of thousands of Palestinians deported outside the strip (2.3 million people live in the enclave). In parallel, Qatar continues to host the negotiations to advance in the high fire in Gaza. Hamas accepts the proposal of the mediators to free five hostages-one alive and four dead-of dual American-Israeli nationality. Netanyahu has criticized the Islamist movement and will not gather his team until Saturday afternoon to announce whether they accept or not.
This proposal to send the Gazatis from the strip to Africa does not detail how it would be carried out. He has not even received the support of the aforementioned, who, in some cases, have also closed the door to the plan. The argument wielded by Trump – and that Israel disguises under the euphemism of voluntary emigration – is that Gaza is not a habitable place after 17 months of war and, therefore, their neighbors need a better place to live, a “beautiful site”, came to suggest. But the three locations that are now attempted to deport them after the destruction caused by the bombings of the Israeli occupation troops in the Palestinian enclave are found in a region, that of the horn of Africa, dominated by poverty and violence.
In any case, Sudan officials have rejected the proposal and those of Somalia and Somaliland claimed not to be aware, according to Associated Press. Hours later, Foreign Minister of that de facto split region, but without legal recognition, denied that they are involved in the new initiative. “I have not received such a proposal and there are no conversations with anyone around the Palestinians,” said Abdirahman Dahir Adan to the Reuters agency.
The Civil War bogged the road of Sudan as one of the four signatories, together with BARÉIN, United Arab Emirates (EAU) and Morocco, of those known as Abraham agreements, with which Washington seeks since 2020, under Trump’s sponsorship, which Arab countries establish relations with Israel. Jartum did it in exchange for being eliminated from the list of states that support terrorism and the lifting of sanctions. The administration of President Joe Biden, a predecessor of Trump, accused the militia of the Fast Support Forces (RSF) facing the army. The current offer to Sudan to welcome Palestinians could open a new way in relations with the US and Israel and could be realized in aid to the government to deal with those rebels.
Somalia is traditionally a strong ally of the Palestinian cause. Therefore, Sambu Chepkorir, lawyer and conflict researcher in Nairobi (Kenya), points out that it is difficult to understand why this country would want to house those expelled from Gaza, explains to Associated Press. As for Somaliland, territory of about four million inhabitants without international recognition, he could access to negotiate the arrival of Gazati in exchange for recognition in the international sphere, according to an official consulted by that same news agency. The self -proclaimed republic is also located in the strategic Gulf of Adén, from where, on the other hand, the Houthi rebels of Yemen continue to assume a threat to Israel and for ships that enter through the Red Sea to the Suez Canal and that represent around 15% of world trade.
International rejection
The idea of cleaning Gaza of its native population is seen as illegal, immoral and unrealizable by the international community and the different Palestinian factions. It fits, however, very well with the yearning for the ultra -nationalist environment of the coalition that supports Netanyahu in power and advocates emptying Gaza and his recolonization with Jews. The forced population movement, something that is imposing the Army of Israel to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians throughout the contest within the strip itself, is a war crime, according to different human rights groups.
The African road of the Trump Plan for Gaza has come to light for the first time this Friday, while the high fire in the Renquea strip after more than two weeks without the exchanges of hostages by Palestinian prisoners. Hamas has been shown this Friday willing to free the Israeli military Edan Alexander, who also has American nationality, along with the remains of four other captives also of that dual nationality: the soldiers Itay Chen and Omer neutra and the marriage formed Judith Weinstein, 70 years During the massacre led by Hamas on October 7, 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and kidnapped about 250.
The delivery of the Israeli military and the remains of the four captives is the answer, according to a statement from the Palestinian Islamist group, to the proposal of the mediators (Qatar, Egypt and the United States) to advance in the path of the end of the contest in the contacts that maintain the delegations displaced to Doha, the Catarí capital. Hamas insists that his goal is for Israel to resume the agreed road map, which foresee that the fire of the fire in early March was passed. For the American envoy Steve Witkoff, which pivotes between the conflicts of the Middle East and Ukraine, the 21 -year -old’s liberation, is a “maximum priority.” Among the contacts that are being carried out, an American delegation has met in recent days with members of Hamas.
The Israeli response has not taken long to arrive. The prime minister criticizes Hamas, but does not reject this Friday’s offer. “Hamas remains firm in his refusal and has not yielded a millimeter,” Netyahu denounces through a statement in which he accuses Islamists of “manipulation and psychological war” against the families of the hostages. The prime minister, however, has not summoned a meeting until Saturday afternoon. In it they will “decide the necessary measures to free the hostages” and achieve all their “war objectives”, the text adds, once the delegation of the Jewish state has returned from Qatar.
On Israeli Street, the war option does not clearly prevail over the agreed with Hamas the release of the kidnapped in Gaza, according to the last survey published Friday by the newspaper Maariv. 53% of voters favorable to the coalition of the Netanyahu Executive defends that Israel resumes the war in Gaza ahead of the negotiations to bring the hostages back. From the opposition side, 82% of citizens favorable to other political forces prefer to prioritize the return to the house of the captives that remain in Gaza, a total of 59, of which only 24 would be alive.
The forum that brings together the majority of families of the kidnapped, contrary to resume attacks on Gaza, has welcomed Hamas’s offer and criticizes Netanyahu’s immobility while continuing to take the streets with constant demonstrations and protests to press through the negotiation. “The families of the hostages apologize for annoying in Shabbat, [festividad religiosa de fin de semana entre el viernes y el sábado]But our loved ones have no time to continue waiting! ”, They warn in a direct complaint to the prime minister.
