Cairo – Egypt is developing a plan to rebuild Gaza without forcing the Palestinians to get out of the strip at a counter of President Donald Trump’s proposal To unpack the territory so that the United States can take over.
The state newspaper Al-Ahram, administered by Egypt, said the proposal requires establishing “safe areas” within Gaza, where Palestinians can live initially, while Egyptian and international construction companies eliminate and rehabilitate the infrastructure of the strip.
Egyptian officials have been discussing the plan with European diplomats, as well as with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, according to two Arab and Western and Western Egyptian officials and diplomats. They are also discussing ways to finance reconstruction, including an international conference on Gaza’s reconstruction, said one of the Egyptian officials and an Arab diplomat.
Officials and diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because the proposal is still being negotiated.
The proposal occurs after an international uproar on Trump’s call for the elimination of the Gaza population of about 2 million Palestinians. Trump said that the United States would take care of the Gaza Strip and rebuild it in a “Riviera del Middle East”, although the Palestinians would not be allowed to return.
The Palestinians have said widely that they will not abandon their homeland, while Egypt, Jordan, backed by Saudi Arabia, has rejected Trump’s calls to go to the population of Gaza. Right groups have said that the plan is equivalent to Forced expulsion, a possible war crime. European countries have also largely denounced the Trump plan. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu He has praised the idea and says that Israel is preparing to implement it.
The Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, who was in Saudi Arabia on Monday on a tour of the region, said that the United States was up to alternative proposals. “If the Arab countries have a better plan, then that is great,” Rubio said Thursday in the US Radio Program. “Clay and Buck Show.”
The Al-Ahram newspaper of Egypt said that the proposal is designed to “refute the logic of US President Trump” and counteract “any other vision or plan that aims to change the geographical and demographic structure of the Gaza strip.”
Gaza approaches a critical situation with the First phase of a high fire It must be exhausted in early March. Israel and Hamas must still negotiate a second phase destined to bring a release of all the remaining hostages in the hands of the militants, a complete Israeli withdrawal of Gaza and a long -term detention to the war.
Any reconstruction plan will be impossible to implement without an agreement in the second phase, including an agreement on who will govern in the long term. Israel demands the elimination of Hamas as a political or military force in the territory, and it is unlikely that international donors contribute to any reconstruction if Hamas is in charge.
The center of the proposal of Egypt is the establishment of a Palestinian administration that is not aligned with Hamas or with the Palestinian authority to direct the strip and supervise the reconstruction efforts, according to the two Egyptian officials involved in the efforts.
It also requires a Palestinian police force composed mainly of former police officers of the Palestinian authority who remained in Gaza after Hamas took over the enclave in 2007, with reinforcement of the forces trained in Egyptian and Western.
When asked about the possibility of deploying an Arab Force in Gaza, an Egyptian official and the Arab diplomat said that Arab countries would only agree if there was a “clear path” for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has rejected any Palestinian state, as well as any paper for Hamas or the Palestinian authority backed by the West to govern Gaza, although he has not presented any clear alternative.
Hamas has said he is willing to give up power in Gaza. Hamas spokesman, Abdul Latif al-Qanou, told Associated Press on Sunday that the group has accepted a Palestinian unit government without the participation of Hamas or a technocrats committee to administer the territory. The Palestinian authority, which governs the West Bank pockets, has so far opposed any plan for Gaza that excludes it.
The Western diplomat said that France and Germany have supported the idea that Arab countries develop a counterpart to Trump’s plan, and that the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattaah El-Sissi, discussed the efforts of his government with the French president in a call Telefónica earlier this month.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty also informed German Minister of Foreign Affairs and other EU officials outside the Munich Security Conference last week, said one of the Egyptian officials.
Officials of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Jordan will discuss Egypt’s proposal at a meeting in Riyadh this week, before presenting it to the Arab Summit at the end of this month, according to the two Egyptian officials and the Arab diplomat.
Isarel’s 16 month campaign in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’ attack on October 7, 2023, devastated the territory. Around a quarter of a million housing units have been destroyed or damaged, according to UN estimates. More than 90% of roads and more than 80% of health centers have been damaged or destroyed. Infrastructure damage has been estimated at about $ 30 billion, along with an estimated $ 16 billion in housing damage.
The Egypt Plan demands a three -phase reconstruction process that will take up to five years without eliminating the Palestinians of Gaza, Egyptian officials said.
Designates three “safe areas” within Gaza to relocate the Palestinians during an initial “six -month” early recovery period. ” The areas will be equipped with mobile houses and shelters, with humanitarian aid.
More than two dozen Egyptian and international companies would participate in the elimination of debris and the reconstruction of the strip infrastructure. The reconstruction would provide tens of thousands of jobs to the population of Gaza, officials said.
