The United States and Israel have both rejected an alternative plan to rebuild Gaza after it was adopted by Arab states at a Tuesday summit.
Egypt’s plan — which would cost an estimated $53 billion US — would prevent mass displacement of the enclave’s population of roughly two million Palestinians.
The plan endorsed by Arab leaders at a summit in Cairo was a counter-proposal to U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to displace its residents, take ownership of the territory and redevelop it into a “Middle Eastern Riviera.”
White House National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes dismissed the Egyptian proposal as unworkable.
“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,” Hughes said late Tuesday.
“President Trump stands by his vision to rebuild Gaza free from Hamas. We look forward to further talks to bring peace and prosperity to the region.”
Israel reiterates support for Trump’s plan
The plan endorsed by Arab states would see Hamas would cede power to an interim administration of political independents until a reformed Palestinian Authority can assume control.
A spokesperson for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, Oren Marmorstein, posted on X that the Egyptian plan “fails to address the realities of the situation” and said the summit’s joint communiqué does not mention Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the war or condemn the militant group. The plan, he said, remains “rooted in outdated perspectives.”
Marmorstein reiterated Israel’s support for Trump’s plan to resettle Gaza’s population elsewhere, describing it as “an opportunity for the Gazans to have free choice based on their free will.”
Defying global criticism, U.S. President Donald Trump has restated his Gaza takeover plans on social media, saying Israel would hand Gaza to the U.S. at the end of fighting and that Palestinians ‘would have already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities.’
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty blasted Israel’s rejection as “unacceptable,” describing its position as “stubborn and extremist.”
“There will be no peace neither to Israel or to the region” without establishing an independent Palestinian state in accordance with United Nations resolutions, he said. “Israel violates all international law rules … the international law must be imposed.”
“No single state should be allowed to impose its will on the international community,” Abdelatty said.
Palestinians, Hamas welcome Egypt’s plan
In a social media post earlier Tuesday, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said he looked forward to working with Trump, other Arab nations and the international community “to adopt a plan that aims for a comprehensive and just settlement of the Palestinian Issue, ends the root causes of the Israeli Palestinian conflict, guarantees the security and stability of the peoples of the region and establishes the Palestinian State.”
Hamas, meanwhile, welcomed the summit’s outcome, saying it marked a new phase of Arab and Islamic alignment with the Palestinian cause and that it valued Arab leaders’ rejection of attempts to transfer Palestinians from their territories in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip also welcomed the Arab leaders’ adoption of a plan to rebuild the territory without depopulating it.
“We are satisfied with these decisions and this summit,” said Atef Abu Zaher, from the southern city of Khan Younis. “We are clinging to our land.”
Even as they welcomed the Arab plan, many Palestinians expressed doubts over whether it would be implemented.
“The important thing is that the Arab countries are serious,” said Yasser Abed. He expressed hope they would follow through on the plan, “unlike the thousands of [other] decisions they have taken about our cause.”
Egypt’s plan foresees rebuilding Gaza by 2030 without removing its population. The first phase calls for starting the removal of unexploded ordnance and clearing more than 50 million tons of rubble left by Israel’s bombardment and military offensives.
Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit said the summit’s final communiqué calls on the UN Security Council to deploy an international peacekeeping force in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Plan to include UN co-operation
The communiqué said Egypt will host an international conference, in co-operation with the United Nations, for Gaza’s reconstruction, and a World Bank-overseen trust fund will be established to receive pledges to implement the early recovery and reconstruction plan.
According to a 112-page draft of the plan obtained by The Associated Press, hundreds of thousands of temporary housing units would be set up for Gaza’s population while reconstruction takes place. Rubble would be recycled, with some of it used as infill to expand land on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast.
In the following years, the plan envisages completely reshaping the strip, building “sustainable, green and walkable” housing and urban areas, with renewable energy. It renovates agricultural lands and creates industrial zones and large park areas.
It also calls for the opening of an airport, a fishing port and a commercial port. The Oslo peace accords in the 1990s called for the opening of an airport and a commercial port in Gaza, but the projects withered as the peace process collapsed.
The war began with Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, in which Palestinian militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 people hostage. Hamas-led militants are still holding 59 hostages, 35 of whom are believed to be dead.
Most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements. Israel has rescued eight living hostages and recovered the remains of dozens more.
Israel’s 15-month offensive killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. It doesn’t say how many were fighters, but the ministry says women and children made up more than half the dead. Israel says it killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
The offensive destroyed large areas of Gaza, including much of its health system and other infrastructure. At its height, the war displaced about 90 per cent of the population, mostly within the territory, where hundreds of thousands packed into squalid tent camps and schools repurposed as shelters.
