South Sudan Denies Negotiating With Israel About Relocation Of Gazans

Gaza / DOK UN News Resident

JAKARTA - South Sudan insists it is not negotiating with Israel to re-imulate Palestinians from war-torn Gaza.

On Tuesday, the Associated Press, citing six people familiar with the matter, reported Israel was in discussions with Juba to reunicate Palestinians from Gaza in the East African country.

"This claim is baseless and does not reflect the official position or policy of the South Sudanese government," the South Sudanese Foreign Ministry said.

The Israeli military has attacked Gaza City in the past few days before plans to take over the devastated territory, which is home to more than 2 million Palestinians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated Wednesday's enthusiastically expressed view by US President Donald Trump that Palestinians should leave Gaza.

Many world leaders are worried about the idea of evictions of Gazans, which Palestinians say will be like other "Naughty" (disasters) when hundreds of thousands of people fled or were forced out during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

In March, Somalia and its self-isolating territory, Somaliland, also denied accepting any proposals from the United States or Israel to re-imulate Palestinians from Gaza, while Mogadishu firmly rejected the move.

South Sudan's Foreign Minister, Monday Semaya Kumba, visited Israel last month and met Netanyahu.

The South Sudanese government last month also confirmed eight migrants who were deported to the African country by the Trump administration were currently under the care of authorities in Juba after they lost a legal battle to stop their transfer.

Since independence from Sudan in 2011, South Sudan has spent nearly half of its life in the war and is currently in the grip of a political crisis, after President Salva Kiir's administration ordered the arrest of Vice President Riek Machar in March.