Arab states sign off on Gaza reconstruction plan, postponing details to ‘as soon as possible’

With some Arab leaders notably absent, the emergency Arab League summit in Cairo concluded on Tuesday evening with an Arab adoption of Egypt’s proposal for the reconstruction of Gaza with details kept for a later conference to be held in Cairo “as soon as possible.”

It also called on the United Nations Security Council to deploy an international peacekeeping force in Gaza and the West Bank. 

In talks held in the weeks before the conference, according to two informed sources who spoke to Mada Masr, one an Egyptian official and the other a political source in Saudi Arabia, Egypt was unable to procure prior financing assurances for the plan from Gulf states, who had additional demands, including Riyadh’s preference to await further international backing before making a firm commitment. 

In an opening speech that rejected the prospect of Palestinians being displaced from Gaza, which has been repeatedly proposed by US President Donald Trump, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi laid out Cairo’s proposal for post-war Gaza. 

At its heart was a comprehensive plan to work with the Palestinian Authority and international institutions to reconstruct Gaza and deliver aid without displacing Palestinians from the strip. The plan would “begin with the urgent relief operations and early recovery,” he continued, “until we reach the process of reconstructing the strip”

“Palestinians have been given a choice between achieved annihilation or imposed displacement,” Sisi said, framing Egypt’s plan as an alternative. 

“Egypt is calling for the adoption of this plan in today's summit, and mobilizing international and regional support for it.”

Details were reported in Egyptian media before the start of the conference that the reconstruction plan is expected to cost US$53 billion and take five years to complete, with Egypt allocating seven areas inside Gaza to provide temporary housing for 1.5 million displaced Palestinians. 

For the strip’s administrative management and the management of humanitarian relief efforts, Sisi said that a committee of independent Palestinian technocrats would be formed to manage the Gaza Strip for a temporary period until the Palestinian Authority is ready to take over.

Egypt, he said, would also train Palestinian police personnel to be deployed in Gaza in the coming period. 

On whether Hamas would retain its role as the key player in the strip, a question that has prompted dispute among parties to the ceasefire negotiations with Israel insisting on Hamas surrendering its weapons and being banished from playing any role in future, Sisi said only that a parallel political and security path to peace would see a final settlement for the Palestinian cause.

A new fund would be established for the reconstruction plans, said Sisi, calling on all “regional partners and friends” to participate in another conference on the reconstruction plans for Gaza, to be hosted by Cairo next month. 

Funding was discussed prior to Tuesday’s Arab League summit, according to the Egyptian official, when Sisi flew to Riyadh for discussions with the crown prince for consultations.  At the sidelines of the meetings in Saudi Arabia, Riyadh refused to pledge financial support to implement the reconstruction plan in the absence of prior international consensus on the matter, the source said.

The United Arab Emirates also refused categorically to participate in any reconstruction plans, the same source said, if Hamas and all Palestinian armed resistance movements were not dissolved and consideration was given to creating a new Palestinian administrative entity.

The political source in Saudi Arabia, who is close to the Saudi Finance Ministry, told Mada Masr that Gulf countries also asked for a clear plan to be put in place for the mechanism and means for distributing aid, and for the creation of a unified account to receive the financing before they could participate in the support project. They want to know how the money will enter and how it will leave, the source said. 

While Gulf countries would be among the countries supporting reconstruction ultimately, the source continued, they are not the only ones concerned with reconstruction in Gaza, and Arab countries also need to participate, along with European Council countries and United Nations agencies.

Leaders from the two countries were missing from the event at the new administrative capital on Tuesday, with lower-level representatives of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates attending in place of Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman and UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed, with the absence of the former a last minute surprise for Cairo. “Bin Salman's participation in the summit was expected until early this morning," according to an Egyptian official who spoke to Mada Masr.

Other absences included that of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, with the Algerian foreign minister attending in his place after Algerian official media reported over recent days that the country rejects the absolute dominance of some Arab capitals over the fate of the Palestinian issue. 

Those who were present for the summit included Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, as well Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who paid his first visit to Cairo after months of uncertainty between Egypt and the emerging post-Assad regime. 

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Angolan President and current President of the African Union João Lourenço,  European Council chair António Costa and Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Hissein Brahim Taha also made appearances. 

The summit’s closing statement announced the league’s adoption of Egypt’s reconstruction plan “as a comprehensive Arab plan.”

It also decided to “work to provide all types of financial, material and political support for the plan’s implementation,” and urged the same, “quickly,” from the international community, as well as international and regional financing institutions.