Trying to counter President Trump’s call to “clean out” Gaza, Arab leaders have begun to outline their own vision for Palestinians in the territory.
Vivian Yee reported from Cairo and Ismaeel Naar from Dubai.
Arab countries countered President Trump’s proposal to expel Palestinians from Gaza and transform it into a beachfront destination with their own vision on Tuesday, endorsing a plan to keep the population there, rebuild the territory and turn it into part of a future Palestinian state, without Hamas in government.
The contours of the counterproposal emerged from an emergency summit in Cairo, where Arab countries approved an Egyptian plan to spend $53 billion to rebuild Gaza but not, as Mr. Trump has suggested, moving Palestinians out of the enclave.
Leaders across the Middle East have come under significant pressure to come up with a workable blueprint for reconstructing, securing and governing Gaza at a time when the Israel-Hamas cease-fire is teetering and Israel, buoyed by Mr. Trump’s backing, increasingly appears to hold the upper hand in negotiations.
The Arab plan “sets a path for a new security and political context in Gaza,” Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the Arab League secretary general, said at a news conference. He emphasized the importance of finalizing the Gaza cease-fire agreement.
Yet Israel’s foreign ministry quickly dismissed the Arab proposal on social media, calling its ideas “outdated” and saying it failed to recognize the threat Hamas posed to Israel and the region. Hamas, for its part, said the Arab leaders’ reconstruction plan and support for keeping Palestinians in Gaza were “welcome.”
There was no immediate response from the Trump administration.
Even as Arab leaders presented a unified front against Mr. Trump’s idea, at least one took care to praise the American president for backing the cease-fire — the kind of intervention Arab leaders would happily take more of.
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