The director of Israel’s Mossad agency, David Barnea, visited Washington this week seeking US help in convincing countries to take hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza, two sources with knowledge of the issue told Axios on Friday.
Barnea told White House envoy Steve Witkoff that Israel has been speaking in particular with Ethiopia, Indonesia and Libya.
“In their meeting earlier this week, Barnea told Witkoff that Ethiopia, Indonesia and Libya had expressed openness to receiving large numbers of Palestinians from Gaza,” the two sources said.
Barnea suggested that the US offer incentives to those countries and help Israel convince them.
One source said that Witkoff was non-committal, and it is not clear if the US will actively weigh in on this issue.
In February, US President Donald Trump proposed the removal of all two million Palestinians from Gaza to rebuild the enclave.
But the White House cooled on the idea after getting significant pushback from Arab countries, US officials say, and it hasn't gone anywhere.
Israeli officials say the Trump administration told them that if Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to pursue this idea, Israel needs to find countries that are willing to take Palestinians from Gaza.
Netanyahu tasked Israel’s Mossad foreign intelligence agency with finding countries that would agree to receive large numbers of Palestinians displaced from the Gaza Strip.
