Saudi Arabia played a key role in stopping a US plan to relocate hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, according to a report by the Hebrew-language news site Walla.
Citing Israeli sources, the report said that US President Donald Trump abandoned the plan after his visit to Riyadh, where he signed strategic agreements with the Saudi leadership.
The report came as Hamas said it has agreed to release 10 hostages under ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, saying ongoing talks for a truce were ‘tough’ due to Israel’s ‘intransigence’.
The Palestinian group said the ongoing ceasefire talks have several sticking points, including the flow of aid, withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, and ‘genuine guarantees’ for a permanent ceasefire.
Earlier in the day, Trump said there was a ‘very good chance’ of a ceasefire in Gaza this week or next.
In February, Trump publicly promoted what he called a ‘voluntary migration plan’ for Gaza. He proposed turning the territory into a ‘Riviera of the Middle East’ by relocating its Palestinian population. However, the plan was widely condemned in the Arab world and by humanitarian organisations, which saw it as a cover for forced mass displacement.
According to Walla, Israel observed a shift in the US position following Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia in May. The visit reportedly led to an improvement in US-Saudi relations, reinforced by key economic and security agreements.
Israeli sources noted that Trump’s initiative never moved beyond the stage of what they described as ‘political flirtation’ and was effectively shelved after the trip to Riyadh.
In Israeli decision-making circles, the US withdrawal from the so-called ‘Gaza migration plan’ is seen as a setback to Israeli efforts. Tel Aviv had been counting on Washington’s backing to promote the plan to countries that might accept displaced Gazans. Despite outreach efforts to various states in recent months, no concrete results were achieved.
While a few thousand Palestinians from Gaza left voluntarily, the total number remained far below what Israeli officials had hoped.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his meeting with Trump focused on freeing hostages held in Gaza, as Israel continued to pound the Palestinian territory amid efforts to reach a ceasefire.
A delegation from Qatar, the host of indirect talks between Israeli negotiators and Hamas, met senior White House officials before Netanyahu’s arrival yesterday, Axios said, citing a source familiar with the details.
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, said the number of issues preventing Israel and Hamas from reaching an agreement had decreased from four to one, expressing optimism for a temporary ceasefire deal by the end of the week.
Witkoff said the anticipated agreement would involve a 60-day ceasefire, with the release of 10 living and nine deceased hostages.
In Gaza City, people removed debris after another overnight air strike, searching through a three-storey house for survivors to no avail.
Yemen’s Houthis said they had sunk a Greek-operated, Liberia-flagged vessel called Eternity C in the Red Sea, the second ship that the group has attacked this week after months of calm.
The Trump administration announced it is issuing sanctions against an independent investigator tasked with probing human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories, the latest effort by the US to punish critics of Israel’s 21-month war in Gaza.
The State Department’s decision to sanction Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, comes after a recent US pressure campaign to force the international body to remove her from her post failed.
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