Arab leaders yesterday adopted an Egyptian reconstruction plan for Gaza that would cost $53 billion and avoid displacing Palestinians from the enclave, in contrast to US President Donald Trump’s vision of displacing Palestinians and creating a “Middle East Riviera” in the Strip, Reuters reports.
The White House said the plan adopted by Arab states did not address Gaza’s reality and that Trump stood by his proposal.
Trump’s plan to forcibly displace Palestinians in a US takeover of the enclave received global condemnation last month and echoed long-standing Palestinian fears of being permanently driven from their homes.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi said the Egyptian proposal, welcomed in subsequent statements by Hamas and criticised by Israel and the US, had been accepted at the closing of a summit in Cairo.
Al-Sisi said at the summit that he was certain Trump would be able to achieve peace as the Gaza Strip has been left devastated by Israel’s military assault.
The major questions that need to be answered about Gaza’s future are who will run the enclave and which countries will provide the billions of dollars needed for reconstruction.
Al-Sisi said Egypt had worked in cooperation with Palestinians on creating an administrative committee of independent, professional Palestinian technocrats entrusted with the governance of Gaza after the end of Israel’s war.
The committee would be responsible for the oversight of humanitarian aid and managing the Strip’s affairs for a temporary period, in preparation for the return of the Palestinian Authority (PA), he said.
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The other critical issue is the fate of Hamas, the PA’s rival, which has governed Gaza since 2007 – after winning the elections a year earlier.
Hamas has agreed it will not field candidates to the Cairo-proposed committee but it would have to give its consent to the tasks, members and the agenda of the committee that would work under the PA’s supervision.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said late yesterday the names of the individuals participating in the committee had been decided.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the PA, said he welcomed the Egyptian idea and urged Trump to support such a plan that would not involve displacing Palestinians.
Abbas, in power since 2005, also said he was ready to hold presidential and parliamentary elections if circumstances allowed, adding his PA was the only legitimate governing and military force in the Palestinian Territories.
Hamas said it welcomed the elections.
Abbas has seen his legitimacy steadily undermined by illegal Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, which he oversees. Having lost the 2006 election, his administration is now seen as corrupt, undemocratic and out of touch.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry in a statement called the plan “rooted in outdated perspectives” and rejected the reliance on the PA while complaining that Hamas was left in power by the plan. Washington also voiced its disapproval.
“The current proposal does not address the reality that Gaza is currently uninhabitable and residents cannot humanely live in a territory covered in debris and unexploded ordnance,” White House spokesman Brian Hughes said when asked whether Trump would support the Arab leaders’ plan.
“President Trump stands by his vision to rebuild Gaza free from Hamas,” he said.
Funding
Any reconstruction funding would require heavy buy-in from oil-rich Gulf Arab states such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, which have the billions of dollars needed.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa said the reconstruction fund would seek international financing as well as oversight and likely be located in the occupied World Bank.
The UAE, which has strong ties to Israel and sees Hamas and other Islamists as an existential threat, wants an immediate and complete disarmament of the group, while other Arab countries advocate a gradual approach, a source close to the matter said.
A source close to Saudi Arabia’s royal court says the continued armed presence of Hamas in Gaza was a stumbling block because of strong objections from the United States and Israel, which would need to sign off on any plan.
In a speech at the summit, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan said international guarantees were needed that the current temporary ceasefire would remain in place, and supported the PA’s role in governing the Strip.
Leaders of the UAE and Qatar did not speak during open sessions of the summit.
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri yesterday rejected Israeli and US calls for the group to disarm, saying its right to resist was not negotiable.
Abu Zuhri told Reuters the group would not accept any attempt to impose projects, or any form of non-Palestinian administration or the presence of foreign forces.
Egypt’s Reconstruction Plan for Gaza is a 112-page document that includes maps of how its land would be re-developed and dozens of colourful AI-generated images of housing developments, gardens and community centres. The plan includes a commercial harbour, a technology hub, beach hotels and an airport.