Arab leaders, led by Egypt, reject the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza and advocate for a $53 billion plan to rebuild the Strip, stressing the importance of Palestinian sovereignty.
At the emergency summit in Cairo on Tuesday, Arab leaders expressed their rejection of the displacement of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, while Egypt called for the adoption of its plan to rebuild the Strip.
In his opening speech, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi stated that “our summit comes in the midst of a very complex regional crisis,” noting that the region “faces serious challenges that threaten regional security and stability.”
Sisi called for “adopting our plan that preserves the Palestinian people’s right to rebuild their homeland and remain on their land,” stressing that “the fierce war on the Gaza Strip aimed to destroy the means of life and gave the people of Gaza the choice between annihilation and displacement.”
“We are working on training the Palestinian security cadres who will take over security in the Strip during the next phase,” he added.
Egypt’s Gaza Reconstruction Plan Excludes Hamas, Seeks International Support – Reuters
He also called for directing support to “the fund that we will seek to establish to implement this plan.”
The Egyptian president pointed out that Cairo has worked “in cooperation with our brothers in Palestine to form a committee of independent Palestinians to administer the Gaza Strip.”
Sisi also stated that US President Donald Trump is capable of putting an end to tension and hostility in the region.
The Egyptian President also announced that his country will host an international conference to rebuild Gaza next April.
‘Not Just Cement’ – Guterres
For his part, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in his speech to Arab leaders that “the foundations of Gaza’s recovery are not just cement and bricks but dignity, stability, and the rejection of ethnic cleansing.”
He added that “there can be no recovery without an end to the occupation. No justice without accountability for violations of international law. And no sustainable reconstruction without a clear and principled political horizon.”
Guterres also warned that the situation in the West Bank is worrying, and that it has recently witnessed the largest displacement of its kind in decades.
Rejecting Displacement
On the other hand, King Abdullah II of Jordan reiterated his country’s “total rejection of all attempts to displace Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and annex land.”
He called for preparing a “plan to rebuild Gaza, to be presented to active partners in order to gain international support.”
As for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, he praised the “Egyptian-Palestinian-Arab plan to rebuild Gaza with the Palestinians on their land without displacement.”
Next Tuesday, I will be in Cairo to join the Extraordinary Summit of the League of Arab States to discuss the reconstruction of Gaza.
– UN Secretary-General António Guterres, 28 Feb 25 pic.twitter.com/9NjjfAvR95— UN News (@UN_News_Centre) February 28, 2025
“The security bodies of the PA will take their responsibilities in the Gaza Strip after being restructured and trained under the support of Egypt and Jordan,” Abbas said during the meeting.
In turn, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said, “There is no peace without liberating the last inch of our recognized lands, and there is no peace without the State of Palestine.”
Hamas: Stop Israeli Crimes
For its part, the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas said in a statement that it looks forward, in light of the convening of this conference, which was called the Palestine Summit, to “an effective Arab role that ends the humanitarian tragedy created by the occupation in the Gaza Strip.”
The movement also called for obligating the Israeli occupation government to “stop its crimes against defenseless civilians” and to pressure “to open the crossings and bring in what our people in the Gaza Strip need to strengthen their steadfastness on their land and thwart the occupation’s plans to displace them.”
Top Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri, expressed in statements to Reuters that Hamas rejects calls by Israel and the United States to disarm, saying that “the weapon of the resistance is a red line, and it is not negotiable.”
Cost of Reconstruction
Reuters said it had seen a copy of the Egyptian plan to rebuild Gaza, which showed the cost would be $53 billion.
The plan consists of 112 pages, including maps showing how to redevelop Gaza lands and dozens of color images generated by artificial intelligence of housing projects, parks, and community centers.
The plan includes a commercial port, a technology center, and hotels on the Gaza coast.
The Egyptian Al-Qahirah News Channel also published the plan’s provisions, which reportedly stipulate that implementing reconstruction requires “arrangements for transitional governance and providing security in a way that preserves the prospects for a two-state solution.”
The plan stresses that the two-state solution is “the best solution from the perspective of international law and the community,” and that “the Gaza Strip is an integral part of the Palestinian territories.”
The following are the most important items of the plan, according to what was published by the Egyptian channel:
- Forming a ‘Gaza Administration’ committee to manage the affairs of the Strip for a transitional period of 6 months. The committee will be independent and composed of non-factional ‘technocrats’ working under the umbrella of the Palestinian government.
- Issuing a decision to deploy international peacekeeping forces in the Palestinian territories in an integrated context for establishing the Palestinian state, while emphasizing the possibility of “dealing with the dilemma of the multiplicity of Palestinian parties carrying weapons if its causes are removed through a credible political process.”
- Establishing a buffer zone in the Gaza Strip after removing the rubble and building 20 temporary housing areas with the participation of Egyptian and foreign companies.
- The reconstruction plan takes 3 years to implement and includes implementing early recovery and reconstruction programs in parallel and moving towards a two-state solution as part of the political solution.
(PC, AJA)
