NAIROBI (Reuters) -South Sudan is not in talks with Israel to resettle Palestinians from war-torn Gaza, South Sudan’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, the Associated Press, citing six people with knowledge of the matter, reported that Israel was holding discussions with Juba to resettle Palestinians from Gaza in the East African nation.
“These claims are baseless and do not reflect the official position or policy of the Government of the Republic of South Sudan,” South Sudan’s foreign affairs ministry said in a statement.
Israel’s military has pounded Gaza City in recent days prior to its planned takeover of the shattered enclave which is home to more than 2 million Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday reiterated a view – also enthusiastically floated by U.S. President Donald Trump – that Palestinians should simply leave Gaza.
Many world leaders are horrified at the idea of displacing the Gaza population, which Palestinians say would be like another “Nakba” (catastrophe) when hundreds of thousands fled or were forced out during the Arab-Israeli war of 1948.
In March, Somalia and its breakaway region of Somaliland also denied receiving any proposal from the United States or Israel to resettle Palestinians from Gaza, with Mogadishu saying it categorically rejected any such move.
South Sudan’s Foreign Minister Monday Semaya Kumba visited Israel last month and met with Netanyahu, according to the foreign ministry in Juba.
Last month South Sudan’s government confirmed that eight migrants deported to the African nation by the Trump administration were currently in the care of the authorities in Juba after they lost a legal battle to halt their transfer.
Since achieving independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan has spent nearly half its life at war and is currently in the grip of a political crisis, after President Salva Kiir’s government ordered the arrest of Vice President Riek Machar in March.
(Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Ammu Kannampilly and Christina Fincher)
