TRANSCRIPT
A month after United States President Donald Trump unveiled his plan for the US to "take over" Gaza, as he put it, and relocate the Palestinian population, Arab leaders have come up with a plan of their own.
Egypt presented the new proposal at an Arab League summit in Cairo.
Called Gaza 2030, the plan focuses on rebuilding Gaza without expelling the Palestinians.
Ahmed Aboul Gheit is the Secretary-General of the Arab League.
He says the idea of the forced relocation of Palestinians has been strongly opposed by summit attendees, resulting in unity on a new plan to rebuild Gaza.
"The plan aims at the reconstruction of Gaza under specific stages. And there are means to mobilise the Arab and international funds and under a framework that preserves Gaza's legal situation as part of the future Palestinian state, Gaza and the West Bank together. The plan is not only a technical plan but also draws a new political and security path in Gaza."
The $85 billion plan sets out a five-year timeline for the process, covering emergency relief, rebuilding infrastructure and long-term economic development.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi says the adoption of the plan by Arab leaders is a rebuke of Donald Trump's plan for Gaza to become what he called a "Riviera for the Middle East".
Urging the international community to support it, Mr el-Sisi says along with physical reconstruction, attendees are pushing for work to continue on what's known as the two state solution – the co-existence of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.
"Egypt worked with Arab nations and international organisations to put together a comprehensive and integrated plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip without the displacement of Palestinians. The plan starts with immediate relief operations and early recovery, extending to reconstruction operations of the Strip. Egypt is calling for regional and international support for the plan, as it preserves the rights of Palestinian people in rebuilding their nation and guarantees their existence on their land."
On the issue of security, the plan states this can be dealt with by calling on the United Nations Security Council to deploy international peacekeepers.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who attended the summit in Cairo, says the plan developed by Egypt and Arab leaders has his support and the UN will "fully cooperate".
"I welcome and strongly endorse the Arab League initiative to mobilise support for Gaza's reconstruction clearly expressed in this summit and the UN stands ready to fully cooperate in this endeavour. We recognise that reconstruction requires governance and security arrangements that can help guarantee a brighter, more stable future for Palestinians and Israelis alike."
The plan envisions the establishment of an interim administration of political independents or technocrats to eventually hand over to the Palestinian Authority, which previously governed Gaza before Hamas ousted it from the territory in 2007.
It does not detail what role, if any, Hamas would play in the process.
Israel and the US have opposed the plan put forward by Egypt, insisting that Hamas must be fully dismantled.
Israel's foreign ministry says the proposal fails to address the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
A statement from US National Security Council spokesman, Brian Hughes, says the plan also fails to account for the amount of debris and unexploded ordnance in Gaza that make it uninhabitable right now.
Hamas has welcomed the Arab League plan and called for action and resources to see it implemented.
Hamas has said previously it is willing to cede power in Gaza to other Palestinians, but will not give up its arms until there is a Palestinian state.
A major international conference is set for next month to raise the funds necessary for the rebuilding project.
Mohammad Mustafa, the appointed prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, says he looks forward
to progressing the plan.
"The next stage of the plan is to gain more support for it after the Arab Summit. We will travel to the Islamic Conference, which will also include the foreign ministers of 57 countries. Among the points of discussion is this plan, we hope it will be adopted from the broader framework, which is the Arab-Islamic framework, then we will also head to Europe, the United States and Japan for more support."
Meanwhile, the Gaza ceasefire is on the brink of unravelling, after the first six-week phase expired.
Israel has halted all humanitarian aid to Gaza until Hamas accepts an extension of phase one of the deal, rather than moving to phase two.
That second stage was supposed to see a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and a commitment to end the war.
The International Committee of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says with the aid to Gaza blocked, "people’s lives are on a knife-edge once again".
That has raised fears of hunger and more hardships during the holy month of Ramadan.
In Khan Younis, Ahmed Abu Shabab says after more than 15 months of war, he is worried about conditions getting even worse.
"The decision to cut aid will certainly have a negative impact on the people of the Gaza Strip. We have experienced hunger and a lack of food, and the truth is that we were in a real famine. We could not find anything to eat. We would not find anything to eat for a week. Because of this, we wonder if famine could return again. The biggest surprise is that we are in the 21st century and the world allows this famine to happen."
