Secretary of State Marco Rubio-File photo

WASHINGTON, May  20, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - The United States has reached out to
countries about accepting "voluntary" relocations of Palestinians fleeing
Israel's offensive in Gaza, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday.

 Israel has again warned the population of Gaza -- nearly entirely displaced
since the war broke out over the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas --
to move ahead of a new offensive, which comes after it has blockaded food and
supplies for more than two months.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly mused about displacing Gaza's two
million people to make way for reconstruction.

 Responding to a question in testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, Rubio said: "There's no deportation."

 "What we have talked to some nations about is, if someone voluntarily and
willingly says, I want to go somewhere else for some period of time because I'm
sick, because my children need to go to school, or what have you, are there
countries in the region willing to accept them for some period of time?" Rubio
said.

"Those will be voluntary decisions by individuals," he said.

 Democratic Senator Jeff Merkely replied, if "there is no clean water, there
is no food, and bombing is all around you, is that really a voluntary decision?"

 Rubio did not say which countries had been approached but denied that Libya
was among them.

 NBC News, quoting anonymous sources, recently reported that Trump's
administration is working on a plan to relocate permanently up to one million
Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya.