Arab leaders meet in Riyadh to counter Trump’s Gaza takeover plan

The meeting on Friday brings together leaders of the GCC, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority

A child sits on the rubble of a house destroyed by the Israeli army's air and ground offensive against Hamas in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip, on February 19. AP Photo

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Arab leaders meeting in Saudi Arabia on Friday are expected to review a Gaza reconstruction plan meant to counter President Donald Trump's controversial scheme for the US to develop the coastal enclave after moving its 2.3 million residents elsewhere, according to sources briefed on preparations for the gathering.

Saudi state media said Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman would hold an "informal brotherly" meeting in Riyadh with leaders of the other five Gulf Co-operation Council states – the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain – as well as Jordan and Egypt.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has also been invited, the sources told The National.

The reconstruction plan was drafted by Egyptian experts but is likely to be amended during the Riyadh meeting, they said.

The sources said the proposed plan provides for creating "safe zones" where Gaza's residents would be housed in tents and caravans while homes and infrastructure destroyed during a 15-month Israeli military offensive are rebuilt.

The plan will be implemented over three to five years and will initially restore essential services such as health care and clean water, and revive the enclave's agricultural sector, they said. The reconstruction workforce would primarily be drawn from Gaza's residents.

Heavy construction equipment line up on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip on February 20. AFP

The Riyadh meeting will be followed by an emergency Arab summit in Cairo on March 4. Called by Palestine, it is expected to produce a united, pan-Arab position to Mr Trump's plan, which envisages the resettlement of Gaza's residents in Egypt and Jordan and a US takeover of the enclave before turning it into the "Riviera of the Middle East".

The Cairo summit will also state its support for Egypt's plan to host an international Gaza reconstruction conference to bring together bilateral and multinational donors and construction companies.

Mr Trump's proposals have been condemned regionally and globally, with international rights groups saying they amount to ethnic cleansing, a war crime. US allies Egypt and Jordan have strongly objected to his plan, arguing that it would undermine Palestinians' struggle for self-determination and the creation of their own state as the most viable resolution to the decades-old Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

A joint statement by Egypt and Spain, issued at the end of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi's visit to Madrid on Thursday, said: "The two parties emphasise the right of the Palestinians to remain on their land and expressed their rejection of any attempt to evict them to neighbouring nations."

A woman grieving among Israeli flags in "Hostages Square" in Tel Aviv prior to the handover on February 20 of four bodies of hostages taken by Hamas during its deadly October 2023 on Israel. Getty Images.

The statement also supported giving the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority the primary role in postwar Gaza, suggesting there was no longer room for a continuation of Hamas's 18-year rule of the territory.

"The two parties are committed to supporting the Palestinian Authority in its efforts to provide basic services in Gaza and restore security ahead of reconstruction, as the only government responsible for the restoration of stability in Gaza and the rest of the Palestinian territories," it said.

The Egyptian plan, which could cost up to $50 billion, envisages the creation of an independent Palestinian agency to co-ordinate and oversee the reconstruction. The Palestinian Authority will have to issue a decree creating the agency but will not be entitled to interfere or influence its work, the sources said.

Members of the agency will be technocrats who enjoy the support of all Palestinian factions, they added.

Separately, Egypt is in the process of selecting a 15-man Palestinian committee to oversee the day-to-day affairs of postwar Gaza, including a limited say in the reconstruction effort, said the sources. The proposed committee will not include representatives of Hamas or the Palestinian Authority and will be aided by local clan chiefs and mayors.

The coffins containing the bodies of Sheri Bibas, her two children, Ariel and Kfir, and Oded Lifshitz, sit on a stage before being handed over to the Red Cross by Hamas in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, on February 20. EPA

The reconstruction plan can only succeed if sufficient funds are raised and the ceasefire that went into effect on January 19 holds beyond its initial six-week phase. If continuing negotiations on the second phase are successful, Hamas will release all hostages seized during the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, while Israel will withdraw from Gaza and a permanent ceasefire would go into effect.

However, the sources said, there were growing doubts that Israel would be willing to fully withdraw from Gaza or agree to end the war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has repeatedly vowed not to stop the fighting until Hamas's military and governance capabilities are dismantled and all the hostages are freed. It has also stated its intention to retain a security role in Gaza.

Hamas has expressed fears that Israel will resume military operations in Gaza after all the hostages are released. On Wednesday, it signalled that it was willing to free all remaining hostages in Gaza in a single swap during the next phase of the ceasefire. The first phase entails the release of 33 hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.

About 250 hostages were seized from Israel during the Hamas-led attack that started the war, and about 1,200 people were killed. Israel's relentless military response has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded more than twice that number, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It has also reduced large parts of Gaza's built-up areas to rubble.

Egypt, which administered Gaza between 1948 and 1967, has long viewed the territory as part of its national security sphere. Allowing Gaza's Palestinians to resettle on Egyptian territory, Cairo maintains, will weaken the Palestinian cause. It insists that a two-state solution allowing a Palestinian nation to be created and peacefully exist alongside Israel is the only feasible resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.