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Arab states adopt Egyptian alternative to Trump's 'Gaza Riviera'

05 March 2025 00:00 (UTC +04:00)

Arab leaders adopted an Egyptian reconstruction plan for Gaza on Tuesday that would cost $53 billion and avoid displacing Palestinians from the enclave, in contrast to U.S. President Donald Trump's "Middle East Riviera" vision, APA reports citing Reuters.

Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said the proposal, welcomed in subsequent statements by Hamas and criticised by Israel, had been accepted at the closing of a summit in Cairo.

Sisi said at the summit that he was certain Trump would be able to achieve peace in the conflict that has devastated the Gaza Strip.

The major questions that need to be answered about Gaza's future are who will run the enclave and which countries will provide the billions of dollars needed for reconstruction.

Sisi said Egypt had worked in cooperation with Palestinians on creating an administrative committee of independent, professional Palestinian technocrats entrusted with the governance of Gaza.

The committee would be responsible for the oversight of humanitarian aid and managing the Strip's affairs for a temporary period, in preparation for the return of the Palestinian Authority (PA), he said.

The other critical issue is the fate of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, the PA's rival, which triggered the Gaza war by attacking Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.