A recent report in The New York Times has revealed that Israel has been engaged in secret discussions with South Sudan over a highly controversial plan: the forced transfer of Palestinians from Gaza to the African nation.
According to the paper, Israeli officials have for months debated different scenarios concerning Gaza’s population, including the possibility of relocating them to South Sudan — a country already struggling with civil war, famine, and humanitarian crises. The discussions form part of Israel’s wider attempts to engineer mass migration from Gaza in the midst of its devastating war on the Strip.
A Plan Branded as “Voluntary Migration”
The report highlighted that Israel, having failed to secure agreements with other countries to accept large numbers of Palestinians, turned to South Sudan as a potential host. Observers and human rights experts have strongly condemned these talks, describing them as nothing less than ethnic cleansing and a war crime.
Israel, meanwhile, continues to portray the plan as “voluntary migration.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently denied that Israel intends to “expel” Gaza’s residents, but notably refused to confirm whether those who leave would ever be allowed to return to their homeland.
South Sudan’s Denial — and Private Admissions
Publicly, South Sudanese officials have denied that such talks took place. However, senior political figures privately admitted to having discussed the matter with Israeli representatives. According to three regional officials, one South Sudanese official familiar with the talks, and a lobbying group pushing for the proposal, discussions indeed occurred — though with no tangible progress so far.
Sources told the Times that Israel’s interest lies in deporting as many Palestinians from Gaza as possible, while South Sudan seeks to curry favour with U.S. President Donald Trump by cooperating with Israel.
Trump himself reportedly floated the idea of evacuating Gaza’s entire population of over two million, but later shelved it after opposition from America’s allies Egypt and Jordan. Nonetheless, Netanyahu’s far-right allies — who openly call for the permanent reoccupation of Gaza and rebuilding settlements — have publicly endorsed mass expulsion.
Israeli Far-Right Push for Expulsion
Statements from key Israeli ministers reveal the depth of support for forced displacement:
- Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich expressed hope that Gazans would soon be expelled to a “third country,” later insisting that Gaza is “an inseparable part of the Land of Israel.”
- Cabinet minister Gila Gamliel said in a televised interview that 1.7 million Palestinians should be made to leave Gaza.
- Minister Amichai Eliyahu outright called for the “expulsion of Gaza’s residents” — a position Netanyahu’s office sought to distance itself from but never fully rejected.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s civilians remain trapped. Egypt, after initially allowing tens of thousands to flee in the early months of the war, has since closed its doors. Other countries have only permitted small numbers of medical evacuees to leave.
Human rights groups stress that Israel’s so-called “voluntary migration” is anything but voluntary. Omar Shakir, director of the Israel–Palestine office at Human Rights Watch, explained:
“There is nothing voluntary about making Gaza uninhabitable, destroying essential civilian infrastructure, and forcing people into displacement. This is not migration — it is coercion.”
Incentives and U.S. Sanctions
For South Sudan, cooperating with Israel on such a plan could yield political and economic incentives. According to the Times, Israel has offered to support Juba in lobbying the Trump administration to lift visa bans, arms embargoes, and sanctions on senior officials, particularly Vice President Benyamin Paul Mal, widely viewed as the country’s likely next leader.
Trump’s administration had revoked visas for all South Sudanese nationals in April, citing the government’s refusal to take back deportees. In July, Juba reluctantly accepted eight individuals deported from the United States — only one of whom was South Sudanese.
But absorbing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians would be a burden far beyond South Sudan’s capacity. The nation faces deepening instability and one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. “South Sudanese are asking who would pay the cost,” said Joseph Szlavik, head of a lobbying firm working with Juba, who admitted to discussing the issue with government officials.
Mounting Backlash
The Associated Press first revealed the Israel–South Sudan contacts earlier this year, noting that Juba fears the overwhelming financial and political strain such an arrangement would impose. This week, South Sudan’s Foreign Minister Seemaya K. Kumba reportedly discussed the matter with Israeli officials, though the government has since denied any talks.
The reports have sparked outrage in South Sudan itself. The head of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee announced that the foreign minister would be summoned for questioning, calling for urgent clarifications.
Conclusion
Israel’s efforts to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza under the guise of “migration” reveal the stark reality of its strategy: either mass expulsion or permanent re-occupation. The talks with South Sudan highlight the lengths to which Israel is willing to go to strip Palestinians of their homeland.
For Gaza’s besieged population, there is no “third country” that can replace their right to their land. And for the international community, these revelations are yet another reminder that what is unfolding is not only a humanitarian catastrophe — it is a systematic attempt at erasing a people from their own soil.
