Egypt is developing a plan to rebuild Gaza without forcing Palestinians out of the strip, as it tries to provide an alternative to US President Donald Trump's proposal to take over the territory and displace its population.
Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Badr Abdelatty said Cairo is "working on drawing up a comprehensive multi-phase plan for Gaza’s early recovery and reconstruction, ensuring Palestinians remain in their own homeland without being threatened with displacement," the state-run news agency reported Monday.
Abdelatty made the remarks during a meeting with the UN's Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini.
Egypt's state-run Al-Ahram newspaper said the proposal calls for establishing "secure areas" within Gaza where Palestinians can live while Egyptian and international construction firms remove and rehabilitate the strip's infrastructure.
The plan, it said, should be finalised by "next week".
Around a quarter of a million housing units have been destroyed in Israel's 16-month campaign in Gaza, triggered by Hamas' 7 October attack, according to UN estimates. More than 90 percent of the roads and more than 80 percent of health facilities have been damaged or destroyed.
Egypt's plan will be in three phases, and take up to five years, two Egyptian officials told AP news agency, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Phase one should start after the emergency Arab summit in Cairo on 27 February.
Ahead of that, officials from Egypt, Qatar, the UAE and Jordan are to meet on Thursday in Saudi Arabia to discuss the proposed reconstruction.
US 'take over'
The proposal comes after Trump called for the US to "take over" Gaza and redevelop it as a "Riviera of the Middle East". This would involve the permanent resettlement of its 2 million Palestinian population elsewhere.
France's President Macron has slammed the proposal.
The Al-Ahram newspaper says Egypt’s own plan was designed to “refute American President Trump’s logic” and counter “any other visions or plans that aim to change the geographic and demographic structure of Gaza Strip”.
Trump has pressured both Egypt and Jordan to take in Gaza’s residents as part of the US plan. Both countries have refused. Right groups say the plan amounts to "ethnic cleansing", a potential war crime.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that he remains committed to Trump’s plan for the “creation of a different Gaza”.
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz says he will establish a special directorate for the “voluntary departure” of Palestinians from Gaza.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was in Saudi Arabia on Monday, is pushing Trump's plan. However, last Thursday he said the US was up to hearing alternative proposals. "If the Arab countries have a better plan, then that's great," he told American radio.
Israel says committed to Trump plan for Gaza displacement
Critical phase
Gaza is nearing a critical juncture with the first phase of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas due to run out in early March. The two sides still have to negotiate a second phase to ensure the release of all remaining Israeli hostages, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a long-term end to the war.
Any reconstruction plan will be impossible to implement without a deal on the second phase, including an agreement on who will govern Gaza in the long term.
Netanyahu has vowed that “neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority” will govern Gaza at the end of the war, which has seen more than 48,000 Palestinians killed and sparked a humanitarian crisis.
Hamas has said it is willing to cede power in the enclave. On Sunday a Hamas spokesman told AP that the group has accepted either a Palestinian unity government without its participation or a committee of technocrats to run the territory.
(with AP)
