US, Israel reject Arab reconstruction plan for Gaza

The United States and Israel rejected Egypt’s proposal for the reconstruction and management of post-war Gaza, which was adopted by the emergency Arab summit held yesterday in Cairo.

Egypt presented the reconstruction plan as an alternative to the US-proposed, Israel-backed plan to forcibly displace Palestinians from the strip to make way for a “Riviera of the Middle East” real estate development project.

“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 National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes said on Tuesday night.

Hughes stressed that US President Donald Trump “stands by his vision to rebuild Gaza free from Hamas,” while looking forward to “further talks to bring peace and prosperity to the region.”

The proposal adopted at yesterday’s summit would see a committee of independent Palestinian technocrats and professionals take over the strip’s management and oversee relief efforts for six months, to be followed by a five-year reconstruction phase, costing US$53 billion, with the Palestinian Authority eventually taking over from the committee. The members of the committee have already been agreed upon, Foreign Minister Badr Abdel Atty said on Wednesday night.

Hamas announced its approval of Cairo’s plan in the wake of the conference and called for support for it. While the broad strokes of the plan were announced on Tuesday night, the details were postponed until a later date, with sources informing Mada Masr that Gulf states hesitated to make a clear funding commitment at this stage.

Hamas also welcomed the rhetoric on building Palestinian national institutions and holding legislative and presidential elections as soon as possible.

In his speech at the summit, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced plans to “double efforts to strengthen Palestinian national unity, based on commitment to the Palestine Liberation Organization,” which he called the sole legitimate representative of  Palestinians and “one legitimate weapon in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.” He stated that this was the focus of reconciliation talks with Hamas, though he acknowledged, “unfortunately, we have not reached a result yet.”

Key gaps remain in Egypt’s vision for Gaza’s future, namely the question of the resistance’s armament and who will be responsible for security in the strip.

Israel has insisted that Hamas should have no role in governance or security in Gaza in the future.

Hamas has repeatedly stated its refusal to surrender its weapons, emphasizing that the right to resistance is non-negotiable. Hamas spokesperson Sami Abu Zuhri affirmed on Tuesday, during the summit, that “the weapon of the resistance is a red line, and it is not negotiable. We will not accept [any deal] to trade it for reconstruction or the entry of aid.”

The Arab plan, which was prepared by Egypt in full coordination with Palestine, involved Arab states and is based on studies by the World Bank and the UN Development Fund, begins with a recovery period. The first phase, lasting two years, involves constructing 200,000 housing units at a cost of $20 billion. The second phase, spanning two and half years, will add another 200,000 housing units and an airport at the cost of $30 billion. The plan also includes a commercial port, a technology center and hotels on the beach.

Tel Aviv rejected the plan, reiterating instead its support for Trump’s proposal, which envisions Gaza transformed into an ethnically cleansed real estate investment opportunity, with Palestinians displaced to Egypt, Jordan and other Arab countries.

An Israeli Foreign Ministry statement published on Tuesday night also criticized the Arab plan for depending on the Palestinian Authority and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), accusing both of “corruption and support for terrorism.”

The summit’s closing statement stressed UNRWA’s vital, irreplaceable role and prioritized implementing phases two and three of the ceasefire agreement, including Israeli forces’ withdrawal from Gaza and the Philadelphi Corridor, and the unrestricted entry of aid and goods, without neglecting to commend the Trump administration for its role in the ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal.

Hamas also called for unified Arab efforts to pressure the Occupation into implementing the stages of the fragile ceasefire agreement and to facilitate the entry of “aid, relief and shelter,” amid Israel’s closure of all crossings leading to the strip. This came after Hamas rejected a US proposal to extend phase one of the agreement, which ended on Saturday, in favor of moving directly to phase two, which includes a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Despite the absence of many Arab leaders, notably the Saudi crown prince and the UAE president, the closing statement emphasized that the proposal is a “collective Arab plan” in response to Trump’s ethnic cleansing proposal.

The statement rejects any attempts to displace the Palestinian people from or within their lands as “a serious violation of international law, a crime against humanity and ethnic cleansing,” and condemns “the policies of starvation and scorched earth aimed at forcing the Palestinian people to leave their land.” It also announced the formation of a legal committee of Arab states party to the 1948 Genocide Convention to study these actions as part of the crime of genocide and further encouraged states to uphold Interantional Court of Justice decisions on Israel and pursue the legal prosecution of those responsible for these crimes.

The statement also called for an end to Israel’s similar transgressions against Palestinians in the West Bank, its assaults and incursions in Syria and its violations of the ceasefire in Lebanon. 

The closing statement also called for the establishment of an international fund to care for the approximately 40,000 children orphaned by Israel’s war on the strip and to provide aid, including the installation of artificial limbs for thousands of amputees, particularly children.