Gazans could be resettled in Ethiopia, Libya or South Sudan under ‘voluntary emigration’ plans

One senior official in Jerusalem reportedly told CNN that these talks included South Sudan, Somaliland, Ethiopia, Libya and Indonesia.

In return, the partner nations would receive "significant financial and international compensation," the report added.

The move is likely to face international backlash, with any organised movements of Gazans out of the Strip expected to spark allegations of ethnic cleansing, which Israel has strongly denied.

However, should this prove to be the true list of potential destinations, the scrutiny could intensify, given the recent human rights records of some of those nations.

Ethiopia, for instance, is just three years removed from the end of the Tigray War, which saw a widespread famine and flagrant human rights abuses.

Likewise, South Sudan’s civil war lasted seven years before ending in 2020 and also led to a severe famine, with spates of inter-ethnic violence still flaring up today.

Indeed, in March this year, UN Secretary-General António Gutteres said that the ceasefire that ended the conflict was “in shambles” and that South Sudan was once again “on the edge of a collapse into civil war”.

South Sudan’s government has denied reports that it is in discussion with Jerusalem about resettling Gazans, calling them “baseless”.

But a subsequent report from The Telegraph, citing an unnamed South Sudanese official, claimed that a deal had been secretly approved by the country's cabinet, despite the concept reportedly being roundly rejected by parliamentarians.

"The South Sudanese land is enough to host more people from different nations, and also it’s good for the South Sudanese to open wide the window for external business to grow the economy,” they said.

The source reportedly claimed that the deal had been kept under wraps due to the expectation of a backlash, adding: “This kind of deal is not easy for South Sudanese to understand right now and also we have a very complex political situation in South Sudan.”

Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Sharren Haskel, was in the capital Juba when the reports broke to sign a “memorandum of understanding on bilateral consultations”, while her South Sudanese counterpart visited Israel last week.

Israeli ministers have long maintained that Gazans should be allowed to leave the Strip to relocate should they wish to due to the ongoing war.

Some, including Defence Minister Israel Katz, have even suggested that this “voluntary emigration” should be encouraged by the government.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, has backed US President Trump’s plan to, at least temporarily, relocate Gaza’s entire population while the Strip is redeveloped after the end of the war, with countries like Egypt and Jordan mooted as possible destinations.