Informal negotiations regarding the future of the Gaza coastal strip in Palestine have reached the stage where the Israeli Government has teen asked for its views if a formal offer should “be made that Israel take over the Gaza belt and its normal and refugee population of 150,000 Arabs, it was learned today. The impression here is that Israel may accept the offer inn principle, but will not commit itself to any fixed number of refugees until the final phase of peace-making is reached.
Meanwhile, it is clear to observers here that the Arabs have for the moment succeeded in pushing the Palestine Arab refugee question to the front and the future of Arab Palestine to the rear of the agenda. They told the Commission that the future of Arab Palestine is a purely internal matter for the Arab states and that the Commission is not mandated to deal with it.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
