CNN | Published March 5, 2025
The Trump administration has rejected a long-awaited plan for the reconstruction of Gaza endorsed by Arab leaders, saying the president stands by his own vision which includes expelling the territory’s Palestinian residents and transforming it into a “riviera” owned by the United States.
“The current proposal does not address the reality that Gaza is currently uninhabitable and residents cannot humanely live in a territory covered in debris and unexploded ordnance,” National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said in a statement Tuesday night.
“President Trump stands by his vision to rebuild Gaza free from Hamas. We look forward to further talks to bring peace and prosperity to the region.”
The postwar plan for the Gaza Strip, which was proposed by Egypt and calls for Hamas to cede power to an interim administration until a reformed Palestinian Authority (PA) can assume control, would allow its roughly 2 million Palestinians to remain, in contrast to Trump’s proposal.
Speaking in Cairo, PA President Mahmoud Abbas pledged that general elections will be held in the West Bank, Gaza and occupied East Jerusalem for the first time in nearly two decades “if circumstances are suitable.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu still refuses to say what he envisions for Gaza’s post-war future, except to say that he endorses Trump’s plan for “a different Gaza.” And he thinks neither the PA nor Hamas should govern Gaza.
The $53 billion proposal by Arab nations calls for rebuilding Gaza by 2030. The first phase calls for starting the removal of unexploded ordnance and clearing more than 50 million tons of rubble left by Israel’s bombardment and military offensives.
Jordanian officials told CNN earlier that the plan will be presented to President Donald Trump in the coming weeks.
Although Arab states endorsed Egypt’s plan, the extent of its regional support remains uncertain. Notably, the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – wealthy Gulf nations whose financial backing would be vital for any postwar strategy – were absent from the summit. Meanwhile, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune boycotted the meeting, citing “imbalances and shortcomings” and criticizing it as being “monopolized by a limited and narrow group of Arab countries.”
CNN obtained a copy of the document, which lays out an ambitious plan to develop shopping malls, an international convention center and even an airport within five years. It also aims to attract tourists by building resorts and enhancing the enclave’s Mediterranean coast.
It also acknowledges the difficulties that could be faced in disarming militants in the Gaza Strip.
“It is something that can be dealt with, and even ended forever, only if its causes are removed through a clear horizon and a credible political process,” it says.
Disarming Hamas
Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters on Tuesday that the group’s arms were non-negotiable.
“The weapon of the resistance is a red line, and it is not negotiable,” he said. “We will not accept (any deal) to trade it for reconstruction or the entry of aid.”
Hamas has sent mixed signals about its future in Gaza in recent weeks. Analysts have said that while the group has shown that it is willing to discuss demilitarization as an end goal of a peace process, it is keen not to allow it to become a prerequisite of the process.
Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, said last month that the group will not disarm and may even grow after the war in Gaza.
Last week, Hamas official Husam Badran said that the group was willing to step aside from governing Gaza. “Our only condition is for this to be an internal Palestinian matter – we will not allow any regional or international party to get involved,” he told Al Arabiya. “As long as there is national consensus, Hamas will not be involved in the governance.”
The current ceasefire in Gaza, in place since January, remains in doubt after its first phase expired on Saturday. Israel has embraced what it says is an alternative US proposal to extend the cessation of hostilities and the release of hostages taken in Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which triggered the war.
Israel has blocked the entry of food, fuel, medicine and other supplies to Gaza to pressure Hamas to accept the agreement and has warned of additional consequences, raising fears of a return to fighting.
The suspension of aid drew widespread criticism, with human rights groups saying that it violated Israel’s obligations as an occupying power under international law.
Speaking at the summit announcing the plan for Gaza’s future, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said there would be no “true peace” without the establishment of the Palestinian state.
Israel has vowed to maintain open-ended security control over both Gaza and the West Bank, which it captured in the 1967 Mideast war and which Palestinians want for their future state.
Israel’s government and most of its political class are opposed to Palestinian statehood.
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SOURCE: www.cnn.com
RELATED: Arab leaders set to huddle in Cairo over alternative to Trump’s Gaza plan
Palestinians refill on water next to a destroyed mosque at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on March 3, 2025. (Eyad BABA / AFP)
THE TIMES OF ISRAEL | Published March 5, 2025
Arab leaders were set to gather in Cairo on Tuesday to discuss an alternative to a plan from US President Donald Trump in which the United States would assume control of war-battered Gaza and displace its Palestinian population.
The Arab League summit on the territory’s reconstruction comes a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again gave his backing to Trump’s plan, calling it “visionary and innovative.”
Palestinians, along with the Arab world and many allies of Israel and the US, have condemned Trump’s proposal, rejecting any efforts to expel Gazans.
UN estimates have put the cost of Gaza’s reconstruction at more than $53 billion amid the devastating war triggered by the Hamas terror group’s brutal October 7, 2023, onslaught on Israel.
Arab foreign ministers met in the Egyptian capital on Monday for a closed-door preparatory session centered on a plan to rebuild the territory without displacing its people, a source at the Arab League told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The plan would sideline Hamas, which rules Gaza, and replace it with interim bodies controlled by Arab, Muslim, and Western states, according to a draft seen by Reuters. It does not specify whether the proposal would be implemented before or after any permanent deal to end the war in Gaza.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi attends a ceremony at the Presidential palace in Ankara, September 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
The proposal also does not detail a central role for the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, which has sought to lead Gaza’s reconstruction — a nonstarter for Israel, which has accused the body of backing terrorism. Nor does the draft proposal say how Hamas would be pushed aside, how the Strip would be rebuilt, or who would pay to rebuild it.
The source said the plan “would be presented to Arab leaders at Tuesday’s summit for approval.”
The heads of state of several Arab nations are expected to attend, while some countries sent foreign ministers or other high-level representatives.
Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa are expected to deliver opening remarks, according to a schedule shared by the Arab League.
Trump triggered global indignation when he first floated his idea for the United States to “take over” the Gaza Strip and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East” while forcing its Palestinian residents to relocate to Egypt, Jordan and elsewhere.
Trump has since appeared to soften his stance, saying he was “not forcing” the plan, which experts have said could violate international law.
Ceasefire impasse
The Gaza Strip has been under a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade since Hamas took power there in 2007, with critics of Israel often likening the territory to an open-air prison.
Israel asserts the blockade is necessary to ensure the terror group cannot smuggle in weaponry.
In a speech to the Knesset Monday in which he hailed Trump’s plan, Netanyahu said: “It’s time to give the residents of Gaza a real choice. It’s time to give them the freedom to leave.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Knesset plenum, March 3, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
The idea of clearing Gaza of its inhabitants has been welcomed by far-right members of Netanyahu’s coalition, such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has called for Israel to “establish full sovereignty there.”
The Cairo summit is taking place as Israel and Hamas find themselves at an impasse over the future of a fragile hostage-ceasefire deal that began on January 19.
The ceasefire’s first phase saw 33 Israeli hostages released, eight of them dead, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, including many convicted terrorists serving hefty jail sentences. Five Thai nationals held hostage in the Gaza Strip were freed separately during that period.
While Israel said it backed an extension of the first phase until mid-April — including the release of the remaining 59 hostages in two batches toward the beginning and end of the Ramadan and Passover holidays that run through March and until April 19 — Hamas has accused Israel of violating the original deal and has insisted on continuing on to the second stage.
Netanyahu on Monday warned Hamas that “there will be consequences that you cannot imagine” if the hostages still held by terrorists were not released.
A senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, accused Israel of actively sabotaging the ceasefire, calling its push for an extension “a blatant attempt to… avoid entering into negotiations for the second phase.”
Aid block
As the truce’s first phase came to a close, Netanyahu’s office announced Israel was halting “all entry of goods and supplies” into Gaza and that Hamas would face “other consequences” if it did not accept the truce extension.
The move drew criticism from key truce mediators Egypt and Qatar, as well as from other regional governments, the United Nations, and some of Israel’s allies.
Trucks carrying humanitarian aid line up on the Egyptian si
de of the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip on March 2, 2025. (AFP)
The war has destroyed or damaged most buildings in Gaza, displaced almost the entire population, and triggered widespread hunger, according to the UN.
The war was sparked on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages.
Israel launched a campaign aimed at eliminating the terror group and bringing home the hostages.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 48,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 410. The toll includes a police officer killed in a hostage rescue mission and two Defense Ministry civilian contractors.
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SOURCE: www.timesofisrael.com
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