Egypt is racing against time to put together a plan for rebuilding the Gaza Strip and ward off a proposal by US President Donald Trump that would depopulate the devastated territory and convert it into a “Middle East Riviera” under US ownership.
Cairo has reportedly determined the general contours of its Gaza plan, but a final blueprint is unlikely before a mini-Arab summit that Saudi Arabia is expected to host on 20 February.
Cairo is also keen to draft a final plan for Gaza’s reconstruction before an emergency Arab summit it will host on 27 February so that it can get broad Arab approval and support.
Some aspects of the Egyptian proposal were leaked to the media in the past few days and the most salient feature is that Gaza will be rebuilt without displacing the population of over 2.2 million Palestinians.
There could also be a Gulf-led reconstruction fund and a proposal to sideline Hamas, sources have said.
Palestinians remain in Gaza
Most of Gaza has been devastated after 15 months of Israeli shelling, with observers noting that Israel has intentionally made the Palestinian territory uninhabitable. Throughout the war, there have been multiple Israeli plans to displace Palestinians, with far-right calls also growing to reestablish illegal settlements.
Egypt is proposing that the Palestinian population be transferred into safe zones where they will be provided makeshift homes as part of an initial six-month phase, according to media reports.
This will be followed by an 18-month project to build safe housing units and remove tens of millions of tonnes of rubble, beginning in southern Gaza before moving north.
The plan will reportedly involve 24 multinational companies and 18 consulting firms, according to reports, and reconstruction would take five years.
Egypt is racing against time to put together a plan for rebuilding the Gaza Strip and ward off a proposal by Trump that would depopulate the devastated territory. [Getty]
Regional consensus
Trump‘s expulsion plan for Gaza shocked Arab states while leaving proponents of Israeli settlement building and annexation jubilant.
It also upended long-held international policy, including Washington’s, on how to resolve the conflict, especially in relation to the future status of Gaza and its role as part of a Palestinian state.
Both Egypt and Jordan have vehemently rejected the plan, pitting them both against the new US president, who has used the threat of withdrawing hefty military and financial aid packages.
When meeting President Trump on 11 February, King Abdullah II of Jordan effectively put the ball in Egypt’s court by asking the US president to wait for Cairo’s plan for Gaza. Nonetheless, in formulating the proposal, Egypt is also keen to show that there is regional consensus and that it is approved by Arab and Muslim states.
This is why Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi postponed a visit to the US scheduled to take place in mid-February, having made the trip conditional on not discussing Trump’s expulsion plan, and will now likely not travel to Washington before the emergency Arab summit on 27 February.
“Egypt is working to rally Arab and international support behind its own plan for the reconstruction of Gaza,” Ahmed Youssef, a political science professor at Cairo University, told The New Arab.
“This support will of course make Egypt’s position stronger,” he added.
Apart from highlighting Arab and international support, Egypt also apparently wants the US president to take ownership of the proposal, including a suggestion to call it the “Trump plan”.
Lack of clarity
Available information about the Egyptian plan raises more questions than answers at this stage, with the source of funding for reconstructing Gaza a major obstacle.
Some estimates put the cost of rebuilding the Palestinian enclave at over $50 billiona possible stumbling block, while reports suggest it could take 15 years to remove 40 million tonnes of rubble.
There are also concerns about whether the reconstruction plan will address Gaza’s political future and Hamas’s role, both key issues to implementing it.
“Hamas’s presence in Gaza will give Israel justification to resume the war,” Jihad al-Harazin, a professor of political science at al-Quds University in the occupied West Bank, told TNA.
“This is why this group needs to retire because it has caused too much destruction to the people of Gaza already,” he added.
But Hamas is alive and well in Gaza, even after 15 months of incredibly intensive bombardments and a brutal ground invasion.
Military parades during the release of Israeli captives as part of the ceasefire deal clearly show this, with reports indicating that the group has recruited up to 15,000 fighters during the war.
On Friday, Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit called on Hamas to step down to allow for Gaza’s reconstruction and avoid any pretext for Israel and the US to oppose the plan. Whether the Palestinian group will do this remains to be seen in the coming weeks and months.
In early December last year, Hamas and Fatah, the movement of Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, agreed to form a committee of between 10 and 15 technocrats to run the affairs of post-war Gaza.
Earlier this week, what was described as a “well-informed source” from Egypt told the Egyptian news channel al-Qahera News that Hamas had agreed not to be part of Gaza’s administration in the coming period.
There are concerns about whether Egypt’s reconstruction plan will address Gaza’s political future and Hamas’s role, both key issues to implementing it. [Getty]
Viable alternative
If it steps down, Hamas will thwart lobbying by Israel’s far-right for a resumption of fighting in Gaza until the total eradication of the group.
It may also convince the Trump administration that Gaza’s reconstruction will not give Hamas the chance to rearm or make the Palestinian territory a security threat for Israel in the future.
But whether the Egyptian plan – when it is complete – will convince the American president to ditch his takeover plan remains to be seen.
Trump’s shocking expulsion plan has forced regional states to formulate their own solution for Gaza, especially following US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s comments last week.
“Right now the only plan — they don’t like it — but the only plan is the Trump plan. So if they’ve got a better plan, now’s the time to present it,” the US secretary of state said.
This was not the first time Rubio asked Arab states to step forward and present their own vision for Gaza.
On 6 February, he Trump-gaza-plan-should-step-forward-6d6abb1e”>said Trump had offered to go in and be part of the solution. “If some other countries are willing to step forward and do it themselves, that would be great, but no one seems to be rushing forward to do that.”
Egypt has been fighting tooth and nail – together with Qatar – to salvage the current Gaza ceasefire, which nearly collapsed after Hamas said last week that it would not release the sixth group of Israeli captives due to constant violations of the deal.
In the end, the exchange took place, but the successful implementation of the ceasefire deal will now be crucial to paving the way for Gaza’s reconstruction.
Saleh Salem is an Egyptian journalist