US and Israel ask East African countries to resettle Palestinians: Report

The United States and Israel have asked three East African governments to accept forcibly displaced Palestinians from Gaza, according to US and Israeli officials who spoke to The Associated Press (AP).

On Friday, AP reported that the US and Israel began discussing the forced displacement of Palestinians last month with the governments of Sudan, Somalia and its breakaway region Somaliland.

This comes after US President Donald Trump suggested in February that the US could "take over" the Gaza Strip and expel Palestinians. His declaration prompted Egypt to draft an alternative plan for Gaza's reconstruction, which has since been adopted by Arab leaders.

The $53bn Egyptian plan rejects the displacement of Palestinians and instead focuses on redeveloping the enclave without depopulating it. 

Earlier this week, Trump appeared to signal a retreat from the proposed mass expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza. When asked about it during a meeting in the White House with Irish leader Micheal Martin, he said: "Nobody is expelling any Palestinians from Gaza."

However, AP's report suggests that the US may have responded to the rejection of its displacement plan by Arab governments last month by looking further afield.

The foreign ministers of Somalia and Somaliland denied on Friday that they had received any proposal from the US or Israel to resettle Palestinians in their countries.

Somalia's foreign minister, Ahmed Moalim Fiqi, said his country rejected "any proposal or initiative, from any party, that would undermine the Palestinian people’s right to live peacefully on their ancestral land".

A senior Sudanese official also denied that Sudan had received a proposal, telling Reuters that such a plan would be unacceptable.