Egypt has presented a plan to rebuild war-battered Gaza to Arab leaders gathered in Cairo for an emergency summit amid growing uncertainty over the future of an expired ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi convened the meeting on Tuesday with discussions on the highly anticipated plan – countering President Donald Trump’s proposal for the United States to take control of the enclave and expel Palestinians.
Egypt’s plan includes an initial recovery phase aimed at de-mining the territory and providing temporary housing, followed by a longer reconstruction phase focused on rebuilding essential infrastructure, according to media reports.
Other key questions about Gaza’s future include who will govern the enclave and which countries will provide the billions of dollars needed for the reconstruction of the devastated territory.
“We know that the United States and Israel … want neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority to be involved [in the future governance of Gaza],” Luciano Zaccara, a professor at Qatar University, told Al Jazeera.
“We don’t know exactly what the Arab countries consider. Most probably there’s a consensus that they don’t want Hamas to be involved, but of course, they don’t want Hamas to disappear totally as Israel wants,” he said.
Hamas has said it rejects any solution imposed on the Gaza Strip by outsiders.
“We look forward to an effective Arab role that ends the humanitarian tragedy created by the occupation in the Gaza Strip … and thwarts the [Israeli] occupation’s plans to displace [Palestinians],” the group said in a statement on Tuesday.
Sisi said Egypt had worked in cooperation with Palestinians on creating an administrative committee of independent, professional Palestinian technocrats entrusted with the governance of Gaza.
The committee would be responsible for the oversight of humanitarian aid and managing the Strip’s affairs for a temporary period, in preparation for the return of the Palestinian Authority (PA), he said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the PA, said he welcomed the Egyptian idea and urged Trump to support such a plan that would not involve displacing Palestinian residents.
Abbas, in power since 2005, also said he was ready to hold presidential and parliamentary elections if circumstances allowed, adding his PA was the only legitimate governing and military force in the occupied Palestinian Territories.
Any proposal would require heavy buy-in from oil-rich Gulf Arab states such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, both represented at the summit by their foreign ministers, who have the billions of dollars needed to roll out the plan.
Gaza truce expires
The extraordinary summit comes days after the first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza expired. Israel reneged on the terms of the deal by refusing to embark on phase two negotiations, instead pushing for an extension of the first phase of the deal.
Israel announced on Sunday that it would halt the entry of humanitarian aid and other supplies into Gaza and introduced a new ceasefire proposal that it said was backed by the US.
During the 42 days of the first phase, 25 living captives and the remains of eight dead captives were returned to Israel in exchange for some 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
All remaining living captives were due to be freed in a second phase of the ceasefire, but Hamas and Israel are deadlocked over how to extend the truce.
Under the new Israeli proposal, Hamas would be required to release half its remaining captives in exchange for a ceasefire extension and a promise to negotiate a lasting truce. Israel made no mention of releasing more Palestinian prisoners – a key component of the first phase.
Hamas has accused Israel of trying to sabotage the existing agreement, which called for the two sides to negotiate the return of the remaining captives in exchange for more Palestinian prisoners, a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a lasting ceasefire. But no substantive negotiations have been held.