The US embassy in Libya denied on Sunday a report that the US government was working on a plan to relocate Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya.
“The report of alleged plans to relocate Gazans to Libya is untrue,” the US embassy said on the X platform.
The Tripoli-based internationally recognized Government of National Unity was not available for immediate comment.
On Thursday, NBC News said the Trump administration is working on a plan to permanently relocate as many as one million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya.
The report cited five people with knowledge of the matter, including two people with direct knowledge and a former US official.
IT said that the plan is under serious enough consideration that the US has discussed it with Libya’s leadership, while stressing a final agreement has yet to be reached.
In exchange for resettling the Palestinians, the administration would release to Libya billions of dollars of funds the US froze more than a decade ago, the report said.
An official told the US network that it remains unclear where one million Palestinians from Gaza could be settled in the largely lawless Libya, which has been plunged into chaos and division since the 2011 civil war in which longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown and killed.
The report also noted the logistical challenges involved in transporting one million people from Gaza to Libya, particularly with no airport in the Strip.
“These reports are untrue,” an administration spokesperson told NBC in response. “The situation on the ground is untenable for such a plan. Such a plan was not discussed and makes no sense.”
US President Donald Trump has previously said he would like the United States to take over the Gaza Strip and see its Palestinian population resettled elsewhere.
Shortly after taking the presidency earlier this year, Trump triggered global perplexity by saying he wanted US allies Egypt and Jordan to take in people from Gaza, suggesting the US “take over” Gaza and turn it into a “Middle East Riviera.”
Both countries rejected the idea, which drew global condemnation, and Palestinians, Arab nations and the UN said it would amount to ethnic cleansing. Trump has since said, however, that no Gazans would be expelled.
Visiting the Middle East this week, Trump said he wanted the United States to “take” Gaza and turn it into a “freedom zone.”
While far-right ministers in Israel lauded the plan — they have urged using the ongoing war with Hamas as an opportunity to reestablish Israeli settlements in the Strip — the Palestinian Authority and Arab nations rejected it outright.
Despite public opposition among the region’s leaders, the government has moved forward with plans to encourage Palestinians to relocate, though The Times of Israel found no meaningful change in Israel’s exit policy for Gaza residents in recent months.