Arab leaders have endorsed a $53 billion Gaza postwar plan, one that would allow its residents to remain in response to President Donald Trump’s plan to relocate them while the United States redeveloped it as a “Riviera of the Middle East” resort area.
At a summit hosted by Egyptian President Abdel-Fatteh el-Sissi, Egypt, which has mediated Gaza cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas with Qatar and the United States, put forth a plan that Arab leaders accepted on March 4, in which Palestinians in Gaza would relocate to mobile homes in safe areas within Gaza while its cities were rebuilt.
Hamas, the terrorist group that controls Gaza and started the war with its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, would cede power to an interim administration of political independents until a reformed Palestinian Authority can assume control. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attended the summit.
The plan was endorsed by heads of state and senior officials from the 22-member League of Arab States.
The United States and Israel rejected the idea almost immediately.
The Arab 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 spokesman Brian Hughes said in a statement to media outlets.
“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’s foreign ministry, in rejecting the plan, said it “failed to address” the realities of the situation following the Oct. 7 attack.
“Hamas’ brutal terrorist attack, which resulted in thousands of Israeli deaths and hundreds of kidnappings, is not mentioned, nor is there any condemnation of this murderous terrorist entity,” the foreign ministry said.
Egypt, Jordan, and Gulf Arab states have, for almost a month, been discussing an alternative to Trump’s plan, fearing it would destabilize the area.
On Feb. 4, in a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump called for relocating the Palestinians from war-torn Gaza to somewhere inhabitable and safe.
The United States, he said, would take on the formidable task of clearing and cleaning up the war’s debris and unexploded munitions, and redevelop the area as an international resort.
Egypt and Jordan, which he named as possible destinations for the Palestinians, flatly rejected the idea of accepting them.
The Palestinian Authority administered the Gaza Strip until Israel withdrew in 2005 and Hamas won elections in 2006. The following year, many remaining Palestinian Authority officials were executed, arrested, or expelled by Hamas.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said Israel won’t accept the Palestinian Authority, controlled by Abbas’s Fatah party, playing a role in postwar Gaza.
Abbas welcomed the plan, announcing an amnesty for long-standing political opponents, and promising to hold elections “in the coming year” after not having done so for nearly two decades. The 89-year-old leader also agreed to appoint a deputy.
The Egyptian plan does not say who would pay to rebuild Gaza, which the U.N. estimates will cost more than $53 billion. The plan would require Gulf and Arab states to commit at least $20 billion to the initial phase.
