Israel and the US are considering Syria as a potential place to relocate Gaza’s 2 million or so residents, CBS News reported on Sunday. CBS cited an anonymous US official who said that the Trump administration had reached out to the interim Syrian government through a third party.
Another US official said that there has been no news of a response from Syria on the matter. CBS also cited a senior Syrian official who hadn’t heard of any discussion on the matter between the Syrian government and the US or Israel.
This holiday season, give to:
Truth and understanding
The Media Line's intrepid correspondents are in Israel, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Pakistan providing first-person reporting.
They all said they cover it.
We see it.
We report with just one agenda: the truth.
Days earlier, the Associated Press reported that the US was looking to the East African nations of Sudan and Somalia and the unrecognized country of Somaliland as potential homes for displaced Gazans. Sudan reportedly rejected the request.
The proposals follow US President Donald Trump’s announcement in February that he intends to remove the residents of Gaza in order to rebuild the strip, which has been heavily damaged in the long war between Hamas and Israel. That announcement was made at a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has endorsed the idea.
President Trump initially suggested that displaced Palestinians from Gaza could be relocated to Egypt. Egypt has strongly opposed that idea, leading pan-Arab efforts to present an alternative plan for rebuilding Gaza that does not involve displacing the enclave’s residents.
Relations between Israel and Syria have been tense since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024. Israel remains wary of the new interim government and has occupied parts of southern Syria to prevent Iranian and Hezbollah entrenchment.