Exclusive: Powerful Libyan official in talks with Israel to resettle Palestinians from Gaza

National Security Adviser Ibrahim Dbeibah, a relative of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, has quietly held talks with Israeli officials over deal that would see US release $30bn in frozen assets, sources say

Libyans wave Palestinian flags in solidarity with the people of Gaza on 19 January 2024 in Tripoli's Martyrs Square amid Israel's genocidal campaign in the besieged enclave (Mahmud Turkia/AFP)

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A senior official in Libya's internationally recognised government has held talks with Israeli officials over a proposal to resettle hundreds of thousands of Palestinians expelled from Gaza, multiple sources have told Middle East Eye.

Speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the issue, Libyan, Arab and European officials told MEE that National Security Adviser Ibrahim Dbeibah, a relative of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, was spearheading the talks despite Palestinians in Gaza flatly rejecting US President Donald Trump's postwar plan for the enclave.

One Libyan source said that "practical talks" had already taken place but the specifics were vague.

"The mechanisms and implementation have not yet been spoken about," the source said.

Another Libyan source said that discussions were still ongoing and that members of the Tripoli-based parliament were deliberately being kept in the dark as pro-Palestine sentiment runs deep in the country.

The source said that in an attempt to placate some Libyan leaders, the US was prepared to confer economic support or other benefits in exchange for the country taking in Palestinians.

The source said that Ibrahim Dbeibah had already received guarantees that the US Department of Treasury would release some $30bn in frozen state assets.

In May, separate sources had told MEE that Massad Boulos, an adviser to Trump and father-in-law to his daughter Tiffany, had held discussions with Ibrahim Dbeibah about unlocking billions of dollars in sanctioned frozen wealth funds.

The assets were frozen in early 2011 by former US President Barack Obama, several months before the Nato-backed ouster of longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Boulos flatly denied that he was involved in talks over the resettlement of Palestinians, telling MEE that the reports were "inflammatory and totally false".

However, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said that Trump had "long advocated for creative solutions to improve the lives of Palestinians, including allowing them to resettle in a new, beautiful location while Gaza rebuilds".

Seeking legitimacy from the US

The idea of Libya serving as a possible new home for expelled Palestinians comes amid reports that Khalifa Haftar, a powerful military leader who also oversees a rival rubber-stamp parliament in the country's east, was offered greater control over the country's oil resources if he agreed to resettle hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

Haftar, who has played a seminal role in the widespread destruction and instability in Libya, as well as the ensuing civil war in neighbouring Sudan, has denied the reports.

Meanwhile on Monday, hours after receiving a request for comment from MEE on the issue of resettling Palestinians, Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah said that his government would not engage in the "crime" of resettling Palestinians.

The Gaza playbook: Israel's five-step ethnic cleansing strategy

He reiterated a line from a statement by the US embassy in Tripoli in May which dismissed reports that Washington was pursuing a relocation plan for Palestinians in Libya.

Israel has publicly mulled expelling Palestinians from Gaza and last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli officials were in contact with "several countries" about absorbing displaced civilians from the war-torn territory.

"I think this is the most natural thing," Netanyahu said. "All those who are concerned for the Palestinians and say they want to help the Palestinians should open their doors to them. What are you preaching to us for? We're not pushing them out - we're enabling them to leave… first of all, [leaving] combat zones, and also the Strip itself, if they want to."

Recently, Israel's Agriculture Minister, Avi Dichter, singled out Libya as "the ideal destination" for Palestinians saying they would "happily leave" Gaza if the necessary international support was provided.

"Libya is a huge country, with vast areas and a coastline similar to Gaza's," he said. "If the world invests billions to rehabilitate Gazans there, the host country will also benefit economically."

Israeli officials have long advocated expelling Palestinians from Gaza and within a week of the 7 October attacks, Israel's intelligence minister at the time, Gila Gamliel, presented the cabinet with her "voluntary migration plan" where she hoped 1.7 million Palestinians would leave the enclave.

Forced displacement, as observed in Gaza, violates international humanitarian law, notably Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the forcible transfer of protected persons by an occupying power.

The European source told MEE that Dbeibeh and Haftar were "simultaneously negotiating with the Israelis" in the hope of getting "more legitimacy from the Americans".

The source said that if the resettlement plan was forcibly imposed on Libya, Palestinians would find themselves moving out of the frying pan and into the fire.

"It will be catastrophic at multiple levels," the source said.

"Firstly, for the Palestinians themselves, who would have just about made it out of the Strip alive and escaped an obliterated life in Gaza, facing forced expulsion to a country like Libya which is in deeply complicated political turmoil with divided governments, where systems and society is broken by its civil war."

"The Palestinians will not be getting any care from those governments, which will push them to the following catastrophe, [which] will lead to a new wave of migration towards the shores of Europe. And this is also a scary thought, firstly because the past decades have proven to us that many of them will only make it halfway through the Mediterranean, like many of those boats that capsized. And those that would eventually get to Europe, I do not think that Europe would be welcoming of another one million Arabs arriving at its shores, as the Syrians who just made similar journeys just few years ago."

The Arab official, who was intimately aware of the latest talks, warned that complicity in Israel's ethnic cleansing plan could provoke widespread anger across all of Libya.

"This will be a shock to the Libyan people," he said.

Mohamed Mahfouz, a Libyan political analyst, echoed his remarks, telling MEE that the US was acutely aware that discussions around Libya resettling Palestinians could cause great distress for Libyan authorities.

"Accepting Palestinians could come at a high price for any of the parties that will engage with the United States on this matter. This in itself may explain why neither [Libyan] government is yet to normalise relations."

Outreach to Africa

In recent weeks Israeli officials have publicly said, then later denied, reaching out to leaders from across Africa and Asia to use their territories as potential destinations for expelling Palestinians.

Plans have been mooted for Palestinians to be resettled in Sudan, South Sudan and the breakaway region of Somalia known as Somaliland, despite all of the territories being plagued by violence.

Sudan has been gripped by intense violence since its civil war broke out in 2023, with an estimated 150,000 people killed in the past two years.

South Sudan has struggled to recover from a civil war that broke out after independence, with more than seven million people facing food insecurity and at least 2.3 million children at risk of malnutrition.

What is 'Greater Israel'?

Meanwhile, Somaliland continues to face threats from the armed group al-Shabab over the region's memorandum of understanding with Ethiopia - one of the greatest enemies of the group.

A Libyan political analyst, who requested anonymity due to fear of reprisal attacks by government-aligned militias, said that it was "unsurprising" that Ibrahim Dbeibah was leading the outreach efforts with Israel.

"[Ibrahim] Dbeibah, like the Libyan government, is marked by self-interest. He is well aware of the benefits of ingratiating himself with the US and Trump."

While Libya does not officially recognise Israel, the Tripoli-based government, known officially as the Government of National Unity (GNU), is known to have held several secret meetings with Israeli officials in recent years.

In 2023, Najla al-Mangoush, then foreign minister under Dbeibah, secretly met Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen in Italy. The revelation sparked outrage in Libya, resulting in angry protests and her suspension.

In a later interview with Al Jazeera Arabic, Mangoush claimed she had attended the meeting on direct orders from Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, and that it was coordinated between his government and Israel.

Arabic Post later reported that Ibrahim Dbeibah had orchestrated the meeting, citing unnamed sources.

Middle East Eye reached out to the prime minister's office and the GNU for comment but did not receive a response by time of publication.

Israel's genocide in Gaza

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Exclusive: Powerful Libyan official in talks with Israel to resettle Palestinians from Gaza

Exclusive: Powerful Libyan official in talks with Israel to resettle Palestinians from Gaza