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The US and Israel have approached countries in Africa about taking Palestinians from Gaza, as part of President Donald Trump’s plan to clear the enclave and build a “Riviera of the Middle East”, according to people familiar with the matter.
Israeli officials have sounded out the governments of Somalia and Sudan, countries wracked by civil war, while US diplomats have been in contact with the breakaway province of Somaliland, the people said.
The idea of transferring the majority of Gaza’s 2mn people was first raised by Trump in February, as part of his plan to take over the territory.
Israel halted all humanitarian aid to Gaza in March and has threatened to cut water and electricity supplies after Hamas rejected a revised proposal to extend the initial ceasefire deal.
Israel and Hamas have exchanged recriminations over violations of the deal, failing to agree on an extension of the truce into a second stage that would have ended the war and secured the release of the remaining hostages held in Gaza.
Human impact
The Israel-Hamas war has become the deadliest chapter in the decades-long history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hamas killed 1,200 people in its October 7 2023 attack on Israel, with an additional 250 taken as hostages.
The militant group has released some hostages as part of the ceasefire deal, but is still holding 59 people — fewer than half of whom are believed to be alive.
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After October 7, the Israel Defense Forces entered northern Gaza, sweeping south towards Khan Younis and then Rafah before returning to the north in late 2024.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 48,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials and data from UN OCHA, while more than 2mn people in Gaza have been displaced by the conflict.
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Palestinians in the West Bank have also suffered increased violence since October 7, according to data from UN OCHA and Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.
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Humanitarian workers inside Gaza are another group that have experienced significant danger, with an unprecedented number being killed.
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Gaza food and water insecurity
International aid group Oxfam has described Israel’s decision to block aid to Gaza in March “as a reckless act of collective punishment, explicitly prohibited under international humanitarian law”.
It called for pressure on Israel to ensure “vital aid urgently gets into Gaza” and noted that the International Court of Justice had ordered Israel to ensure large-scale aid deliveries throughout Gaza.
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The Biden administration built a $230mn JLOTS floating pier to get more aid into Gaza, but shipments were affected by storms and sea conditions, leading to the project being mothballed.
The IPC, an international panel who monitor food insecurity, has warned that the entire Gaza strip is at risk of famine, particularly in the north.
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Gaza infrastructure damage
According to damage assessments from researchers at the CUNY Graduate Center and Oregon State University, nearly 60 per cent of all buildings across Gaza have suffered damage, rising to 80 per cent in Gaza City.
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October 7 attack on Israel
Hamas militants launched a multipronged dawn assault on Israel from the Gaza strip on October 7 2023.
The attack began in the early hours of the morning on the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah, with thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns and cities.
Many were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defence system, but satellite imagery showed fires and smoke rising from locations that were hit.
Hundreds of Hamas fighters simultaneously attacked by land, air and sea, breaching the fortified barrier between Gaza and Israel.
Militants used motorised paragliders to attack the Supernova music festival, which was taking place not far from the Gaza border. After flying in, they shot many Israelis and took others as hostages.
Armed Hamas fighters targeted Israeli communities and military sites at several locations, going door-to-door and performing execution-style killings as well as taking hostages.
More than 1,200 Israeli civilians and troops were killed on October 7, according to Israeli officials — making it the deadliest attack on the country since its foundation.
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Since Hamas’s attack, Israel has been in conflict across several fronts in the Middle East connected to Iran’s “Axis of Resistance”.
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Additional cartography by Jana Tauschinski and Cleve Jones
Development by Vanessa Brown, Janina Conboye, Peter Andringa, Chris Campbell, Chris Cook, Sam Joiner, Lucy Rodgers, Ian Bott, Dan Clark and Alan Smith
